Whoa, those months sorta slipped past quietly, didn't they...?
(Dude, you need to work on your definition of "quiet," ya know?!)
Yeah, yeah, I hear you... February, March (and now April!) slipped by quickly but not really quietly -- there's a heckuva lot going on 'round these parts despite the best efforts of an increasingly scary global pandemic. The result is that despite my good intentions, a combination of short time, long to-do list(s), demanding life issues, and near-zero energy made it really hard to keep up with everything here.
Sooooo (as the saying goes)... Here's one more, "Oops, I'd better try to catch up!" blog entry to add to my already extensive collection. (And yes, I'm working on an entry to explain some of those "life issues" and "difficulties" and "complications" I keep cryptically referring to. It'll be here soon... or at least when it's ready.)
The Pipsqueak and I had a unique opportunity to share some quality "together time" back in February during a particularly long medical appointment that I had to take my folks to. AJ was working and Miri didn't feel comfortable being alone in any of the family homes for the required number of hours, so she came along for the ride... and, since the pandemic has played hob with medical offices as much as any other facilities, ONLY my folks were allowed inside so uncle and niece found a nice, sunny parking spot nearby and spent a couple of hours just talking about this and that and such. I got an earful about the hormone-based drama(s) beginning to shake up Miri's group of friends, which girl liked which boy that liked which girl, who was getting nicer and who was becoming insufferably uptight or overly proud of themselves, and all the other "good stuff" that guarantees there is not enough money on the planet to convince me to relive my years in what these days is middle school. As you can see in the photo, there was far less sturm und drang in our conversation that it might seem from the preceding sentences; chalk that up to my niece really not being a fan of such drama (but, thankfully, still being a fan of the bad dad jokes I look up online to inflict on her).
Near the end of the month, a long-awaited milestone was reached when the lovely Miss Alison told Miri that she feels she's ready to go up on toe in ballet class -- words that the Pipsqueak has been longing to hear for at least a year, maybe longer. She's got some oddly fused bones in one foot that kinda got in the way (apparently a genetic gift from her bio family) so it's taken her a bit of extra work, but it wasn't many days post-pronouncement before AJ had made an appointment at a local dance supply store (thanks again, you stupid virus, for making such craziness a necessity) and at the end of the appointed block of time my little niece was practicing ballet moves en pointe at the barre. I don't think a week has passed without her mentioning how sore she is when she gets home in the evenings after dance -- anywhere from 1 to 3-1/2 hours of class every weeknight due to the dance team requirements -- but she remains happy and proud to finally be up on point.
As has happened early every March since near the middle of the last century, Yours Truly officially got older... again. AJ & Miri baked me a special cake and then Miri decorated it... and needlessly spent quite a bit of time during the small immediate-family-only (thanks again, you stupid virus) celebration apologizing profusely for the messiness of her penmanship with special frosting in a squeeze tube. I just thought it was an extra-personal touch, and can vouch for the fact that the tastiness of their work was in absolutely no way diminished. Also, since that "B" was actually quite a bit larger than it looks and there were only five of us eating it, I still have a couple of good-sized chunks in my freezer at home. (Lil sis' excuse was "that's the only size the cake pans will let me make!" but I wasn't complaining.)
I got a few gifts, ranging from cute to downright silly (including a 24" high hollow milk chocolate Tyrannosaurus Rex that's currently still in its box in my kitchen, since there is no way I can eat it all by myself without getting happily sick)... but I also got a couple with extra-special meaning. AJ got me a cool shirt (and immediately commented, "Now I don't know what to get you for Father's Day!) that I appreciated...
...but the one that I thought was really special came directly from the Pipsqueak herself:
I don't have any photos of the "event" but a few days later we finally -- after far too much research, decision-making, decision-changing, and general pulling of hair -- replaced our rapidly dying iPhones with new models... and transferred one of our folks' phones (with a new number) to Miri. She's been lobbying for a phone of her own for a couple of years, fully accepting our reservations & desire to wait until she was a bit older, but with so many communications from both the dance team and her friends now being via email and text message, and with her being alone in one or another house for some period of time already beginning to happen, all her grownups agreed that it was time. She uses her 2016 vintage iPad Mini on a daily basis (and there's only been one episode where AJ felt a need to intervene & tighten some ground rules in all that time), but it doesn't offer some of the communications & safety of the newer smartphones so now she is the absolutely thrilled "owner" of an iPhone SE (2020 version) all her own. Of course, nothing went as planned with the process... I spent a total of 5-1/2 hours on the Verizon website (almost two of those hours on the phone with an amazingly helpful customer service rep) just trying to get the order placed properly, then discovered that Amazon would not let me buy more than three of any Apple-branded accessory within a multi-day period (we have FOUR phones, Amazon, I'm not trying to resell anything!), and then the actual transfer of data between AJ's nearly-dead old phone failed repeatedly over TWO DAYS due to its inability to keep working long enough in a single sitting. (Note to self: never ever never buy an iPhone charging cable from a dollar store and never ever never let said cable short out while the iPhone is plugged into it... it wasn't her fault and we were amazed the phone still worked at all.)
In any case, Miri took to her new phone like a duckling to water -- no surprise there! -- and it got to the point where her grownups had to remind her the main reason she was complaining about her thumbs being sore was because she spent perhaps several orders of magnitude too much time messaging back and forth with her friends. (In my day, we just talked to each other on the phone for hours... now it's PING! PING! PING! as text messages fly through the ether.)
Later in the month we were happy to host the Florida contingent of the family during one of their too-rare visits to the area. We weren't sure of how to deal with the necessary distancing -- not all the adults had been vaccinated yet, and there were three younger humans who could not be vaccinated at all -- but the weather cooperated with a beautiful sunny day and we all enjoyed a meal of Pho (delivered, of course) and several hours of catching up and interesting discussion. (Their son, not in the photo due to my bad timing, is the kind of "kid" who discussed things like, "Do the transporters in Star Trek actually move you from place to place, or do they just dissolve you and create a copy at the other end, and if they do that then did you die and is the 'you' that beamed down actually the same person, and do the laws of physics even allow for any of that to happen?" back when he was in elementary school -- he's about to finish high school now, so he and I have conversations that are truly enjoyable but leave my head spinning for days afterwards.)
By the end of March/early April, Old Man Winter seemed to finally get the message and temperatures during the day began to move farther north on the thermometer. Both Mom and Dad finally got their COVID-19 vaccines (despite our county's byzantine, fractured system), the deer visiting my backyard began to replace their shaggy grey coats for a sleeker brown look, and we finally began to see real signs of spring.
Another sign of Spring for us is the beginning of the dance competition season, which has been extra-special for Miri this time around because she has her own solo number this year. Her piece is very difficult technically (her teachers know how hard she works and are helping her level up) and she's been busting her tuchus working to tweak and refine and improve it every chance she gets. She's gotten a couple of honorable mentions so far, but no official "placement" -- but the season's not over so (despite some angry tears) we still have our fingers crossed. She's also part of a quad number that's taken 2nd place overall at a couple of competitions, and the overall team number (danced to "¡Que Calor!") has placed first as well. I don't have any performance pictures due to strongly-enforced photography restrictions at the events, but see if you can spot her (in her "¡Que Calor!" costume) in this group photo sent around by the studio owner...
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| Hint: Miri is front row, far right. |
Oh... and another sign of spring was a visitor I noticed nervously watching me work on my computer late one night...
She spent the night in there eating the peanut butter I used as bait, and the next day I released her into the woods... almost a mile away from my house, over on the far side of the 8-lane Intercounty Connector highway. (I may be a softie, but I ain't entirely dumb, LOL.)
And that just about catches us up to the present day. It's funny how the little girl so worried about what middle school was going to be like is now an occasionally blasé Tween who complains (often rightly) that school is boring -- and who is able to share a laugh at her own expense when reminded of how scary it seemed back in September. Miri keeps telling us that she's very glad Mommy decided to keep her in "virtual" school instead of the recently re-opened "in person" school (which literally has the kids sitting at socially-distanced desks attending class via Zoom on their Chromebooks while the teachers broadcast the lesson from the front of the room, since the kids may be in almost any classroom in the building due to space constraints... wearing masks 100% of the time... and not being able to socialize... <sigh>) but has also been adamant about wanting to return to school "for real" in September if it's in any way closer to a regular school experience because she's tired of feeling isolated from her friends. Meanwhile, she's still carrying all A's on her report cards, still knocks me out with how diligent she is about getting her homework done ASAP and as well as she can every day... and still admits to having it really, really good when she "attends" school here on my living room sofa with free run of the fridge and a personal servant & onsite tutor. (Which, to her credit, she does not abuse... but I sure seem to be washing a LOT of dishes on the days she's here with me!)
AJ is already trying to get the Pipsqueak scheduled into summer programs -- an already anxiety-fraught process made all the more interesting by changing ideas of how to deal with the pandemic -- and all the adults in the family have finally gotten both doses of COVID-19 vaccine so we have high hopes for the coming months. Of course, not everything is coming up roses, and there have been some pretty tough times (thus the long gap between my last blog post and this one), but all in all we're about as okay as we're gonna be and these days that's good enough.
I'll address some of the craziness more directly soon, as well as (try to) get back to more frequent postings... until then, stay healthy and wear your masks!
