Getting Bigger

I sat with most of our Cadette Girl Scout Troop this evening, listening to each girl read a poem or piece.  How much they've grown since we started our Daisy troop back in 2009!  Taller--one is even taller than me, which rarely happens (I'm about 5'7"+ so women are rarely taller than I am, much less tweens!)  Besides just being tall, they are so composed, so mature--young women caught between childhood and adulthood.  So even as they read "If" by Kipling and "The Road Less Traveled" by Frost, and even "Everybody Dies, But Not Everybody Lives" by Prince Ea, they also read from The Velveteen Rabbit and Shel Silverstein.  And they giggled and danced around playing charades.  I've watched these girls grow up and I'm not sure I really even saw it happening, even though I've seen them pretty much every other week for over seven years now.  They were little, little girls and now . . . well, they're taller than I am.

And then last night, we went to middle school open house.  Middle school.  Talk about time flying.  Do you realize the kids are closer to college than to kindergarten now?  In less than four years, they could be driving.  I had been nervous about middle school for them, mostlly worried about how they would make new friends.  Academics haven't been much of a challenge thus far and they are both approaching the new school year conscientiously.  Still, honors classes, French, changing clothes for gym, 9 different teachers, school clubs, kids from three other elementary schools.  And teachers who are just . . . so clearly not elementary school teachers.  It's a lot to take in.  For them, too!

But I like my kids and the people they are growing into, so, for now, I'm only sort of nervous about the next five years.

-=-=-=-
Kid Tidbit from school already:  When his French teacher asked the class what French they knew, Bud quoted Hamilton, "Oui, oui, mon ami, je m'appelle Bud!"

Beach Book

It's a week of early dismissals here, with school almost over.  I think we have a party every afternoon!

Yesterday, it was our Mother-Daughter Book Club meeting, which was held at a local beach.  And, yes, we did manage to discuss the book!  It was L.M. Montgomery's Anne of Green Gables, which I had never read.  

And in truth, I didn't finish.  I started it late and the first several chapters were rather slow going.  It did pick up--with vignettes on Anne's life on PEI (Prince Edward Island.)  In fact, that vignette structure is very familiar from other "girl's" books such as the Little House series and even Little Women--the crisis at school, the crisis at the ball, the crisis at church, the crisis in the kitchen, etc etc etc.    Montgomery combines the lyrical and poetic imagination of her protagonist (the White Way of Delight, Dryad's Bubble, etc etc.) with a materialistic account of her surroundings--all those flowers, her "wincey" dress, various dress designs, the different types of tea sets, all the food (boiled pork and cabbage, raspberry cordial/currant wine) and richly drawn character studies.  I'm definitely enjoying it now and will finish it soon.

We did some activities, such as choose your own name like Anne wants to be called Cordelia.  I was "Meg" (from Little Women, also clearly feminine, which mine name isn't and it so bothered me as a child unable to find bookmarks or shoelaces or whatnot with my name and some pink, always rockets), Sis chose "Alex," and Bud was "Kevin."  (He was hanging around and so he got to choose a name, too.)  We designed the kind of dress Anne would like (with those puffed sleeves!) and tried to guess the nicknames she gave various land features.  And then the kids played a kind of red light/green light with one being Aunt Josephine.  

It wasn't PEI, but it was indeed a beautiful day at the beach.  The kids played in the shallows, finding hermit crabs and avoiding the razor-sharp clam shells.  I couldn't find any sea glass, just a bunch of rocks, no doubt from long-ago glaciers sweeping over the area and now coming down the rivers.  I also didn't find any arrowheads or the like (though I'm not sure I'd recognize stone tools on a beach) from the native inhabitants who used the site as fishing grounds, pre- and early-contact.  


I did find some nice stones and decided, last minute, to decorate one and leave it on the beach.  An Art Rock Drop . . . the kids and I have decided to leave several in various places this summer.  My first one, with just the Sharpies on hand, has the quote from Lin-Manuel Miranda's Tonys sonnet.

The full text of Lin-Manuel Miranda’s sonnet:

My wife's the reason anything gets done. She nudges me towards promise by degrees. She is a perfect symphony of one. Our son is her most beautiful reprise. We chase the melodies that seem to find us Until they're finished songs and start to play. When senseless acts of tragedy remind us That nothing here is promised, not one day This show is proof that history remembers. We live through times when hate and fear seem stronger. We rise and fall, and light from dying embers Remembrances that hope and love last longer. And love is love is love is love is love is love is love is love; Cannot be killed or swept aside. I sing Vanessa's symphony; Eliza tells her story. Now fill the world with music, love, and pride. 

HAMILTON!!!!

It's no secret that I have wanted to go see the hot Broadway ticket, Hamilton, along with half of the nation, I imagine.  But the tickets have been prohibitively expensive.   I just can't pay $600+ each for the pleasure . . . so we listen to the soundtrack and read articles about the show in the paper instead.

Until Wednesday.  Mama has a friend at the office who realized early on that Hamilton was impressive and important and so he bought sets of tickets to sell for a profit.  And on Wednesday he told Mama that he'd noticed that the prices were the lowest they'd been in awhile, maybe the lull between spring break and summer tourists.  We'd stopped looking.  But Mama called me midday and said there were four tickets on Stub Hub inside the range we were willing to pay.  For that night.

And so she bought them.  We were a bit worried that they might be counterfeit, some of the resale tickets are, since there's such profit to be made.  But we were going to take the chance (Stub Hub reimburses your loss, if so.)  We picked up the kids after play practice at school and headed down . . . .

Right into the worst traffic we've ever seen heading into the city on a weekday.  More than two hours instead of closer to half that.  Ugh.  We tried not to stress.  But our Waze GPS said we wouldn't get to midtown until 7:20, with showtime at 8--and we still had to park and then pick up the tickets at another location.  And we hadn't eaten!  We had thought to stop on the way down, but the traffic took all of our time.

We got to the parking garage at 7:23 and the race began.  Mama ran to get the tickets and the kids and I headed to the theater, picking up chips and cookies at a nearby deli.  But we did all meet at the theater by 7:40.  Now just to see if the tickets were real.  We got up to the door--and the first three tickets scanned easily, but the usher got stuck on the last one; I think he scanned it 6 times before it went through.  Whew.  They were real tickets!  Mama said that when the ticket wasn't scanning all she could think of was how she wasn't going to get to see the show!

But all was well--actor/composer Lin-Manuel Miranda was even scheduled to perform (we had wondered if the tix were cheaper because he was out of town)--and we headed to our seats--but someone was in them!!! Oh, ugh, were they really good counterfeits???  No, the people were in the wrong seats.  I tell you, I sat down and didn't want to get up again.  These were our seats for Hamilton!  And really good, all things considered.  Fourth row front mezzanine, with an aisle!!!  We had a great view.

And the show was amazing!!!  I'm not even sure I can put it into words.  So, the things that stand out:

• the bare bones wooden-framed but adaptable set with the two levels was well-utilized;
• the lighting, especially in the George III parts, accentuated the drama and mood;
• oh, the actors and dancers!  Lin-Manuel Miranda has amazing presence despite being diminutive and not a strong Broadway-belting singer (he can rap, though! And move.)  All the main characters were powerful, one just as good as the next with no weak ones.  I think applause stopped the show after every solo.  I liked Phillippa Soo as Eliza, especially.  And the chorus/dancers were extremely talented.
• costumes--I loved, loved, loved the costumes, especially the women's.  And it made my little historian self so happy when they switched from early to late 18th-century gowns--from wide panniers to empire waists.  The white corsets and vests on the male and female dancers, both with thick tights, were versatile--becoming Redcoats, citizens, bartender, ballgowns, whatever was needed.  Also, it allowed us to see just how amazing muscular those dancers were (and were probably easier to dance in.)  And all the white then guaranteed that the main characters wearing colors were easier to follow.  Did I saw that I loved the Schuyler sisters' gowns?!
• the staging of the numbers was effective and inventive--the way they "rewound" time during the wedding toast, how they slowed down a bullet during the dual, how the wood became a podium or a ship's plank or the windows of an NYC house . . . .
• the music!!  I'm neither knowledgeable or really a fan of hip hop or rap, but the score captured the energy of what must have been a chaotic time.  There were also quiet songs too, which created a beautiful rhythm with the more energetic songs.  And the lyrics!  So clever--Hamilton was "the ten dollar Founding Father without a father" and such.  Plus references to other musicals--1776, South Pacific, Pirates of Penzance.  
• the non-traditional casting--a Latino Hamilton, African-American Washington and Jefferson, a Chinese-American Eliza?  Loved it.  Added the dimension of the powerless "Young, Scrappy, and Hungry" vs the powerful, which reflects current political issues of social justice, African Americans and the police, Mexican immigrants, etc.  
• indeed, the whole story, about the one Founding Father whom we don't often discuss, was enlightening.  It's been a long time since I've reflected on the early days of the nation--and I'm not sure I ever studied the Federalist Papers or could confidently discuss the different factions of the early days.  But the show didn't make it too dense.  I'd say it was the best way to re-examine the period (barring in mind that this was theater first and some differ with the heroic depiction of Hamilton.)

We LOVED it!  We laughed and cheered and clapped and cried (oh, I had to hold back sobs when Hamilton's son is injured in a duel and his parents are by his side as he dies and as they continue to mourning, living through the unimaginable, as the line goes.)

We all stood clapping before the lights even dimmed and rose again.  And then, Miranda spoke--it's Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS week when casts gather money for organizations (I've seen, if I recall correctly, Rent cast members and Glenn Close make appeals.)  And so Miranda did (while acknowledging how much we'd already spent on tickets!) and then someone else mentioned his Pulitzer this week and we all cheered some more.  LOVED it!

We didn't bother stage-dooring.  I can only guess at the crowds.  So we grabbed some Junior's take out for dinner on the late, long ride home.  And we listened to the soundtrack all the way . . . and haven't stopped since.

I even offered to rap some of it at my historic house tour (my own Hamilton-era performance) yesterday!

Speechless