Practice, Practice, Practice

To reverse the joke, that's how you get to Lincoln Center!!!

Last night, Bud performed with his kung fu team at a Chinese New Year celebration at David Geffen Hall.  Originally, only the older members of the team were going, but Bud was added pretty much at the last minute.

We never dreamed that he would ever be on the Lincoln Center stage!!  What a wonderful and amazing experience!  I don't know if it dawned on Bud until we got there just how big a venue and event this was; the couch didn't seem to know Lincoln Center at all and so maybe they were all spared some of the anticipatory jitters.

So, he spent most of Saturday with his team, practicing, practicing, practicing.

Waiting

We're here!

Checking it out

Dress rehearsal--he's the red/white blur in the back right

And yesterday, we went into Manhattan for rehearsal and the performance.  We had lunch, checked into our hotel, the Empire, across the street, met up with  his teammates, and then Sis and I went back to the room (grabbing Starbucks coffee on the way), where we met up with Ma, Gong, and Goo.  We went back to Lincoln Center around 6:45 and took our seats in the back of the first tier (which was better than we expected.)  As we got closer to time, I got more nervous about the whole thing (because I knew how big Lincoln Center was!)

Backstage

Heading to their room

Meanwhile. Bud and his team got a very truncated rehearsal and a ton of waiting time in their green room, where they chatted, ate sandwiches, and made friends with other performers from a Chengdu dance team (our group was the only American-born group of performers.)I understand it was kinda tense at times backstage and acts rehearsed, chairs were moved, kids got a little stage fright, and adults spoke sternly to each other in Mandarin.  But our team hung together tightly and made the most of it.  They watched the internal monitors to know when it was their turn, about an hour into the evening.

View from the stage

Dress rehearsal--he's the red/white blur near the photo's middle

Wow.

Am I a proud mom!

The finale of their routine--he's the red/white blur in the back row, very middle

The program

Their section of the program was about ten minutes, but it was a well-done routine and they looked great.  (There was a glitch with the music, but the team waited it out.)  Bud did his 9-chain and his Tong Bei form--beautifully!  The team got lots of cheers.  And I got all choked up.  Later, he said he could hear some of the applause.

Leaving by the stage door on 65th

We opted not to stay for the rest of the show and so met the team in the lobby for congratulations and photos--Bud was both extremely excited and pretty exhausted.  And hungry.  So we said goodbye to the group and our family went out for a celebratory seafood dinner at a place called Ed's Chowder House.  It was delicious.

Bud's eyes were drooping over his souffle and we headed upstairs to bed.

Wow.

As his teammate's mom said, "This was a real bucket list item.  Except it probably wasn't even on their list yet!

The Sound of Music

As if third grade and a new school weren't enough of a new adventure, added to that separate bedrooms and separate classes, Sis and Bud have decided to take up string instruments as part of their school's extracurricular music program.  She wants to play the violin; he wants to play the cello.  Mama is excited and inspired to play her own violin.  I'm just glad they aren't planning to play the same instrument.  But I do have visions of our own little string trio, them and Mama. And some worries about the practice sounds of non-silence, though I've been assured that it gets better fast.  It also means that they have to practice piano and their stringed instruments (they don't want to give up piano.)  And also the recorder flutes they play in regular music class.  At least they're motivated and excited.  And I did always want them to play an instrument.  I just didn't envision three!

Smell the Flowers . . . and Bow

A practice for the summer months . . . . 

"Summer Silence"

In summer, I do not come to worship so much as worship comes to me.

In the morning, golden light splashes across my room,

and roses the color of wine greet me in the alley.

As they bow to me in the breeze, I bow back.

At noon, sunflowers refuse to turn their faces from me until again,

          I give a slight bow.

In the evening, the thunderclouds pile higher and higher,

          gathering pink and purple from the setting sun,

creating a vast mountain hanging suspended in the air.

Again, I pause and bow.

At night, when the pastel sky melts into a dark blue lake overhead,

the rusty beacon of Mars beckons above the horizon,

so that I cannot fail to notice and bend a knee.

The bows are small gestures, I know,

but surely better than all these ineffective words. 

And so in the end,

my praise turns to silence,

and the silence turns to me.

from Sonata for Voice and Silence: Meditations by Mark Bellitini. (adapted), Senior Minister First UU of Columbus, OH