April, Come She Will

"Spring is here
The grass is riz
I wonder where
The posies is?"

Well, the purple crocuses (crocii?) are blooming in my yard. YAY! Another version of this ditty wonders "where the birdies is" . . . and I saw three robins on my fence and in my maple tree the other day. Geese dot the gray sky, honking their way through Central New York.

I finished the revisions on my book (a rewrite, really), printed it off, along with several versions of a synopsis, and mailed it to my agent on Monday. This is the first werewolf book, affectionately called WWI. Now I've unearthed the second book in the series -- WWII -- which was being rewritten when my agent and I decided to redo WWI. I'm looking forward to digging into that. I love this story about a gentle, very non-alpha werewolf and his frothy lady-love.

On the family front: X-Chromo's Science Fair project garnered an Honorable Mention in the 8th grade. She was awarded a blue ribbon for it by the "Stumpies" from the local forestry school. TV Stevie & I had fun going to the Science Fair Awards & Ice Cream Social, then dashing to the high school for Y-Chromo's performance in Tri-M (National Music Honor Society) Open Mic Night. Last night was the community dinner and spring play at X-Chromo's middle school, where TV Stevie is PTO Prez, and I'm on countless committees. We actually won a basket in the PTO raffle -- a basket of chocolate! It happened to be donated by X-Chromo's team of teachers, which makes it a doubly nice win. On Friday and Saturday, I have to drive Y-Chromo to the 'burbs for the All-County Jazz Festival. He's singing, which is surprising, as he's been a jazz saxophonist for years. Still, it's pretty cool that he's one of twelve males chosen from the entire county to sing in the festival.

As much as I dislike all the running around, it could be worse: I could have more children or I could have children who require lawyers and probation officers instead of sax lessons and tri-fold display boards.

GREASE is the Word

Life at our house has been on hold for a couple of weeks while Y-Chromo rehearsed for his high school's production of GREASE. He played "Doody", which was a much larger role in the stage version than in the movie version. According to Wikipedia: Several musical numbers were not used in the film. They appear, however, as "Jukebox" tunes, or band numbers at the high school dance. Among them: ..."Those Magic Changes"... which [was] performed by characters in the stage musical (however, Danny does sing along with the band for a few lines of "Those Magic Changes"; on Broadway, John Travolta's character Doodie [sic] sang the song).
And in between the Friday night show and the Saturday night show, Y-Chromo marched in the local St. Patrick's Day Parade. where his high school marching band took gold. Call me Mom-the-Taxi.
Here's a link to Y-Chromo's moment of glory: Those Magic Changes

Howling at the Moon

It has been a busy couple of weeks. Winter is in CNY with a vengeance. Baby, it's cold outside.

I've had all sorts of fascinating, wonderful things going on this week -- not least of which is finishing the rewrite of the first werewolf book. YAY ME!

Today, I'm paying for it. Head cold. Ick-itis. A day to lounge on the sofa like a slug. BZZZZZZZZZZZ. Wrong answer. Actually, that should be RIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIING, I answer.

Call number one: The parent with whom TV Stevie and I are splitting the cost of a pizza dinner for Y-Chromo's drama club. The parents feed the students the week before the play, so they can stay very late at the high school to rehearse. Mrs. G. went ahead and ordered the pizzas for Monday night, will pick them up, and deliver them to school. She hopes I don't mind that she went ahead and did all this without consulting me. I don't even need to write this woman a check; she said I can give her my half of the money at the play next weekend. Mrs. G: I am adding you to my list people G*d should consider for sainthood.

Call number two: My mom, updating me on a sad situation in my sister-in-law's family. I want to be in the loop on this one.

As I'm getting off the phone with mom, TV Stevie comes home for lunch, and immediately turns on the TV and starts making phone calls and cole slaw. He's home for an hour or so.

I force myself to stay awake so I can call Y-Chromo when classes are over to find out his schedule for this evening. Drama club? Jazz ensemble competition? Will you be home for dinner? When should we pick you up from school?

Finally: a nap, with the sun shining on my face. But no!

Call number three: the same telemarketer who has been calling here all week to talk to TV Stevie. I can barely croak. Can't these folks figure out he's working?

I drift back into my nap.

SLAM! X-Chromo is home from school. She sits on my feet and chatters about her day, then wants to watch TV, but I remind her of the new rules I made just this week: no more celebrity gossip programs on VH-1 (believe it or not, there are people in the world who barely know who Paris Hilton and Lindsay Lohan are, and I intend to stay that way, thank you very much) and no more I Love New York. I'm not sure what ILNY is supposed to be, but I'm not listening to it again. Ever. So X-Chromo stomps to the kitchen and procedes to crunch on potato chips for the next hour. Slowly. Loudly. If she weren't crunching chips, she'd be chomping carrots, and they're louder. I can't win.

Call number four: My mom again, with the final update on my sister-in-law's family. Her sister passed away this afternoon.

My life could be a lot worse.