CHSMTA Gala

On Monday, B and I went up to the Palace Theater in Waterbury to watch Daniel and his castmates perform at the CT High School Musical Theater Awards Gala.  It was a wonderful evening - it amazes me how talented these children are.  It makes me wonder why TV shows insists on using adults to pretend to be kids, when there's so much talent out there!

I set my camera on sport continuous and made a moving GIF of the resulting images:

"Brand New Day" is the Wiz's equivalent of "Ding Dong The Witch Is Dead"

Trumbull High School Spring Concert

Last night was my son's school's Spring Concert

I love how much he enjoys himself up there!

so serious

He even had a solo!

It was the same solo he had during their recent tour of France - he sang it in Notre Dame Cathedral!

The Men's Ensemble wondering - what shall we do with a drunken sailor?

I can't wait for the CD and DVD!

Busting Myths!

Over the weekend, we saw the Mythbusters in Hartford.  What a fantastic evening!

Dan's been a fan of the show probably since it first came on.

Dan's a Theater Wiz!

Dan was a member of the cast of his High School production of the Wiz.

CMEA Western Regional Choir Performance

Daniel had a blast preparing for and performing in  the Western Regional Choir Concert . We're so proud, we're bustin' our buttons!

He came home from the rehearsal the day before completely jazzed and full of excitement - the conductor (Dr. Bill Adams) totally blew his mind.

Next step - he's auditioning for the All-State Choir!

Daniel's Winter Concert

I took a few (hundred) photos at Daniel's winter concert last night:

Daniel and his friend Candice.

Fiddler

Dan played a merchant in Fiddler on the Roof at his high school this past weekend.  We're so proud of him for just trying out, and besides ourselves that our freshman was in all the big ensemble numbers and even scored a few lines!

Here he is selling bagels (wait for the transition from the previous scene):

And amongst "the sons" in "Tradition":

A couple more photos:

Meeting The "Obamas"

Me, Blair and Daniel at Madame Tussaud's in NYC, 12/29/10.

Typical Teenager

A friend's teen "liked" this on Facebook:


> I'm just a typical teenager?
> I have a messy room.
> I'm moody.
> I get up late.
> I swear.
> I complain most of the time.
> I spend most of my time on my pc.
> I have private things on my phone.
> I go to bed late.
> So mom and dad .. Deal with it.

So I came up with:

I'm just the parent of a typical teenager?
I know a messy room can make it hard to concentrate (not to mention it being unsanitary).
I'd prefer you didn't take your mood out on the rest of us.
It makes the rest of us late when you get up late.
I'd like you to swear only when it's appropriate to the situation and audience.
Instead of complaining, pitch in and fix it.
Take some breaks from the computer to rest your eyes and exercise your body.
Until you're 18, privacy is a privilege and not a right - earn it. And until you are paying your own phone bill, your phone is really mine.
You can go to bed when you want to, as long as you wake up on time and in a good mood..
So teenager .. Deal with it.

Snowed In

Well, the weathermen kept going back and forth as to whether our part of CT was going to get walloped or no snow at all. We're getting walloped.

My sister posted on Facebook that the wind moved her dog a half foot to the side wheb she took him out. Dumbledore wouldn't even go near the back door when we opened it and encouraged him to go out. Blair took him down to the garage, and shoveled him a little area just outside the garage door - the snow was taller than he was (at least a foot). 

This is reminding me of the blizzard of '96. The state was shut down for two days and I was convinced I would go into labor and not be able to get to the hospital. At least we never lost power. Today though, the wind is blowing so hard that the family room is pretty chilly despite the fact that the heat is on.

This morning, Blair and I got up early-ish (8) to hit the Hallmark store. We got tissue paper and bows which I was out of, but they had no wrapping paper, which I am running low on. It was all only 40% off though. I'm bummed because I'm finally running out of the paper I got for 50% off when Alex was small.

Then we hit the supermarket. What a zoo!! Blair got on line at the service desk to return the Coke he bought by mistake. He was supposed to get Diet Coke to go with the Mentos we gave Daniel for Christmas. I stopped at the hand scanner kiosk and they were all dead (there were only three units in the display). I ran to the other end of the store and there was an out of order sign on the kiosk there. Oh noes! We were going to have to wait on a long line to get out. 

We shopped and got on one of the self checkout lines behind at least 7 or 8 people. I'm leaning on the cart and I turn around to say something to B and he's not there. A little while later, he turns up with a working hand scanner (I guess those three units charged up and he got the last one). We start scanning like mad and packing up our reusable bags, figuring that at least when we get to the head of the line, we'll get out fast. But it got better, the gal who watches over the self service line saw us scanning. She was surprised and checked to make sure it was working OK. The she took us out of line to her station and processed our order, and bang zoom - we were done!

On the way out of the store, we popped the scanner back in the display, so hopefully someone else got lucky too. Once we were in the car, I kept telling Blair that he rocked and that he was "da man". On the way home, I realized I should have grabbed a bunch of scanners from the out of order side and popped them into the empty display. But maybe the woman told someone and they got them working again.

We got home and watched Despicable Me with Daniel. Then I made cheese sticks (wrap string cheese in refrigerator dough and bake according to the directions on the roll package). We all enjoyed them. Blair gave me one of those jewelry armoires (he got a really good deal on one with plenty of drawers, and my current box is overflowing) and I spent the afternoon and evening sorting through the stuff in my old jewelry box, pairing up earrings and such. It was loads of fun (I love sorting and organizing and loved seeing stuff I haven't looked at in a while). Blair and I watched a bunch of old NCISs while I did that.

The hospital massage therapist called to cancel tomorrow's appointment. She may reschedule for later in the week, since she missed last Monday too, due to illness. I probably won't have radiation either. (There's a LOT of snow out there already and it won't quit until tomorrow evening.) I was planning to take a "vacation" day from radiation on Wednesday or Thursday and going into NYC with Dan (who finished all the stuff he owed the English teacher on Christmas Eve!) and Blair, but now I'm thinking I should see if they can take me early in the morning instead, since it'll be 4 days off by the time I get to the hospital.

I felt pretty energetic today (although I did nap for a bit during the day). Maybe it won't take too long to recover my energy once I'm done with the radiation? That'd be nice.

I hope everyone is warm and cozy!

Dan's New Look

Dan's trying a new style. The new clothes seem to be tied with the ipod dock/boombox for best Xmas present.

Blair got a job offer today! The money isn't great, but it's close to home. Before this it was looking like he'd have to take a 4 month maternity replacement gig in a town at least 45 minutes away, plus working weekends for a place that is planning on opening a second building in the fall, and might want him full time then. It's a great relief. We're taking a little money out of his 401K to cover COBRA for a few months, and when he's eligible to join their plan, we can switch to a less expensive plan because I'll be done with treatment.

I'm feeling OK. Mom, a sister and I got together Monday and Tuesday to bake cookies. It really tired me out. Tuesday when I met with the doctor, she said that it's right about the time I should be feeling fatigue from the radiation (speaking of radiation, did you guys hear they want to open up Chernobyl to tourists, how crazy is that?) and that it would get worse before it got better (in maybe a month or so.) I'm starting to get some skin irritation too, and need to be more rigorous about using the cream she prescribed (and doing it more often).

Although it was worrisome (to say the least) to have Blair unemployed, I've been glad to have him with me during the day. He drives me to treatment every day (it's nice to have company). I'm out and about more than I was when I was home alone - and I'm sure I'd sleep more and get dressed later too.

Blair's aunt Sybil passed away (his Dad's sister), she was 91. I'm >so< glad Daniel and I visited with her before we left California - we had a nice lunch and went mini golfing. We're going to visit his parents this weekend. I've adored Sybil ever since I first met her after we got engaged. She offered to throw a shower for me (and invite his parents' friends) and it was lovely. She also adored my husband which was a very large point in her favor. :-)

Dan never told us what he wanted for Christmas, so we went ahead and got a few things for him. He's thinking of changing his look a little and so we got him a couple of henley shirts and a vest (he saw a guy on TV wearing that and liked it). I finished up my shopping tonight on Amazon - I was even able to buy itunes gift cards there! Little teachers' gifts and something for the boys to give Blair.

Dan's almost caught up with the English work. His teacher has been so understanding and willing to work with him. He was missing a couple of assignments - he'd had trouble understanding what to do and was too shy or afraid to ask her.

Blair was really down on himself after he lost his job, and his usual sunny personality is returning. I'm glad to have my usual hubby back.

Radiation Update

The fatigue is no worse than before I started the radiation, when it was stress that was tiring me out. The last couple of nights I've slept poorly (and I had to wake up early to go to the Survivor's Breakfast yesterday morning).

I've been having my "packing dreams" again. The set up varies but there's always a bunch of stuff that needs to be packed, cleaned up, organized or otherwise dealt with, and whenever I think I'm done, I turn around and there's more stuff. Last night I was packing up my belongings at the end of a cruise and apparently I had rooms all over the ship (for which I was having trouble finding the keys.)

Yesterday afternoon was the second day in a row that I went into Daniel's room to check on his homework progress and he was asleep. Later I checked on him again and he got weepy, telling me that he was feeling overwhelmed. I asked if he was depressed and he said probably. I asked if he wanted to talk to someone (and I'm meeting with the gal who arranges services at the cancer center about meeting with a therapist myself), he said he wanted to. He's got a lot of stressors right now, with the change from his cozy magnet school, and the upheaval from changing schools and then changing some classes, plus my illness under it all. Even though on an intellectual level, we all believe I'll be fine, our subconciouses are probably sitting in a corner trembling and crying.

Coming down the hall to hang with us in the family room while he worked helped. He spoke with the teacher today at lunchtime, he's OK to finish the spark notes tonight and meet with the teacher tomorrow at lunch with his questions about the essay, and then he'll have the weeked to finish it. He came home in a really good mood and feels more in control of his schoolwork.

The yoga teacher knew something was off with me today, and pretty soon it was all pouring out of me. You know, if something happens to me, Blair will be OK, he's a grown up and he can take care of himself - but I worry about my boys. They both love me so much.  And Alex doesn't have a father he can turn to - he and Blair care for each other, but it's not the same as having had a father who's been involved his whole life. My poor babies.

Freshman Forum on Underage Drinking

There was a required meeting at school this evening. Half the kids in the auditorium and half in the gymnasium, and the speakers were going back and forth to speak in both venues. There was a doctor to speak about the physical effects of binge drinking (liver damage, accidents, etc), a cop talking about having to tell parents their kids were dead, a man who had killed his stepbrother while driving drunk, and a mom who had lost her son. The cop also talked about an anonymous tip line (to report parties with alcohol) and calling your folks when you find yourself in a situation and need to get out (and telling the parents not to punish the kid if he calls in that situation).

I went in thinking it would be lame, but it was very affecting. Daniel thought it was a good presentation as well, and we had a nice talk afterward. They've been doing this for 5 years now and they've been surveying the kids about drinking and supposedly these lectures have had a positive effect.

School Agita

We thought we were so clever.  We spent a lot of time deciding where to send Daniel to High School after he finished up with the magnet school he'd been attending since pre-school, finally deciding on the IB program at Harding High in Bridgeport.  We used CT's Project Choice program which is usually used by kids in cities like Bridgeport to attend suburban schools like Trumbull's - we were the first family in the state (we think) to use it to go in the opposite direction - because we felt the program would be rigorous and challenging to Daniel.



I got a phone call on Wednesday from Daniel's Math and English teachers. They were both concerned for him because they only have 15 freshmen in the IB program and they mixed them in with regular students instead of being sequestered into their own classes (9th and 10th grade are "pre-IB", so I guess they don't start an actual IB curriculum until 11th grade). Both teachers thought this mixed class wasn't going to serve Daniel well, that he'd be bored since the teacher would have to slow down for the less academically oriented students.


We had a family meeting and decided to pull Daniel from the IB program and enroll him in Trumbull High. We took him over first thing this morning and met with his guidance counselor. Dan took a math assessment while we ran over to his old school to pick up his records. When we got back Dan was ranking possible elective classes in order of his interest. Rather than stick him in any old class for today, he's going to start on Monday and the counselor will take care of getting him into the right classes for him (probably all honors, and honors classes need the buy-in of the department heads, so that will keep the counselor busy today). The three of us are back home, getting ready to go out to lunch.