Nutcracker Ballet - Mom's birthday

The one problem with my ADD super-focus mode is I completely forget about other things that need to be done. Yesterday was my mom's birthday. Did I wrap her gift ahead of time? No. I was super focused on getting our Christmas card finished plus I was hoping the little lighted turntable would come for the crystal 3D space shuttle I bought for her, but it didn't come yet. Then I thought I'd wrap up the fleece NASA jacket I bought her, but silly me bought her a sweatshirt. She has a lot of trouble with things that go over her head so that isn't going to work. So decided to think about it as I showered in 50 minutes we had before we picked her up. Oh no! What was I going to wear? My black pants were clean enough but rumpled. Tumble press time! I sprayed them with water and had to empty the dryer before I tossed them in. Then I showered and dressed in my undies. I was too hot from the shower to put on the red velour top I was going to wear yet and even if the black pants were dry, I can't wear them around the house without getting them covered with cat hair. I dressed in my bathrobe to keep from getting chilled.

As Eric showered, I decided to give Mom the crystal shuttle with the plan of telling her the second part was on the way. Then it hit me. I didn't have a birthday card to go with it! I dug through the cards I've bought when they're on sale in case there was an appropriate one to use. Nope. Mostly I've got sympathy cards (bought but never sent) and "thinking of you" cards. None were right. I had ten minutes left before we had to leave. I found a flower photo I didn't think I'd used on one of the cards I've made for Mom in the past and put that on the front with "Happy Birthday Mom!" On the inside I cheated by using one of Microsoft Publisher's clip art ballerinas along with the wish that her birthday be as much fun as she hoped it would be. I printed it in the MS Publisher default. That's a quarter fold letter sheet. oops! The name of the creator on the back said "User." That's OK, I didn't like it on plain paper and found a sheet of cardstock, changed the name to mine and reprinted it. Checked my envelope collection only to find there wasn't a good match. Then I had a flash of insight. A quarter fold card can be wrapped in an envelope cut from a sheet of letter paper. I folded it, cut it and looked for tape. No tape. Packing tape! It wasn't pretty but it worked. Luckily it was clear. Then all I had to do was wrap the shuttle. My collection of wrapping paper is mostly Christmas, Hanukkah and kid birthday. Crap. I almost had to wrap it in piggy paper. That didn't seem right for Mom. That's paper for Karen because she loves little piggies. Then I lucked out and found kitten paper. The packing tape didn't seem right. I remembered a tape refill I used last Christmas. It wasn't in the drawer but another type was. Whew!

Then I put my top on with my crystal necklace finickynarcane made for me years ago and got my pants out of the dryer. They still had a little cat hair on them, but they weren't wrinkled anymore. I put them on at the front door just before we opened it to leave. Crap. I forgot to clean out the car! Eric and I scooped and sorted my build-up of quickly eaten meals on the road clutter and put it in the trash and recycle containers.

We left the house at two minutes before we were supposed to pick Mom up. She said we'd have plenty of time, so I wasn't worried about a few minutes. I thought we were going downtown San Jose to the Center for Performing Arts. Nope! We were going to the East side of town to the Mexican Heritage Theatre. This wasn't the San Jose Ballet, this was a performance by the San Jose Youth Ballet. My sister's family showed up in blue jeans. We all arrived at the same time so it worked out wonderfully. With Katie, we now have eight people again. When we had seven, the Dad-sized hole was always glaringly obvious. With an even number, we feel more whole again. Someday we'll have nine (or more) and that's OK. It's that seven that bites.

I wouldn't have worn red if I'd know we were going to the East Side. Gangs run rampant over there. They shoot and stab each other all the time. Eric keeps telling me he doesn't think I'm in any danger by wearing "gang" colors in the wrong area because I'm a middle-aged white lady who is obviously not the type to be in a gang, but I still worry. Lots of people were wearing red. The Nutcracker is all about Christmas after all and red is a Christmas color.

The ballet was the best one I've ever seen! They had guest dancers for the grownup parts and for the king and queen of sweets. My mom's exercise friend wasn't there because she broke her leg and had surgery last week but her entire family was there. Two of her granddaughters were in major roles, Clara and the Snow Queen. Wow! They were amazing! Both are tall and willowy with loooong legs. They were both accomplished dancers, perfectly in time with the music, graceful and had stage presence. You couldn't keep your eyes off of them. And the little children were so cute they brought tears to my eyes! Another of my mom's exercise friends also had a grandchild in the play. He was the Naughty Cookie, lol.

I've never seen Clara's little brother played in an obvious bratty way before. It really enhanced the story! The acting was great and the kids really put their hearts into it. You'd think a performance by a youth ballet would be amateurish, but this wasn't. I only saw one dancer who had trouble hitting her marks. She and one other little dancer spent the second act sitting next to Clara and the Prince to watch the show. They were probably beginners. How wonderful they were allowed to be in the production! In the scene with the Snow Queen and the little snowflakes, there was stage snow falling just inside the curtain line! I've never seen that before. It really enhanced the scene. It made me worry when people had to dance through it because the way they were leaping and twirling it seemed like they might slip. But they didn't. Someone backstage had to sweep it up between acts. They kept lifting the curtain to try and get the snow from under it. We thought they should have raised the curtain an inch or two to make the job easier.

In the second act, they were wise to cut short the dance routines in the because even truncated they got to be a bit tedious. They did them all, but stopped them sooner than usual. Anything with the little kids was wonderful but the two grownups dancing? Um.. how many ways can dancers leap and twirl and be lifted in the air with different leg positions? I guess I'm a cretin because I got bored with that. I did enjoy the guy's solo dance. He was the one male ballet dancer who did much at all. I was wondering if all he did was to stand and wait to catch the girls and hold them over his head until his solo dance. WOW! He was good! There weren't enough boys in the cast so the Russian dancers were all girls. That meant we didn't get to see the traditional Russian dance the guys do, but that's OK. The little kids kept getting laughs with their scripted antics.

All in all, I highly recommend the San Jose Youth Ballet's Nutcracker. It had so much character and heart that I much prefer it to the slick professional performances I've seen. Mom said she can't remember how long it's been since she's seen the Nutcracker. Dad wasn't much for fine arts unless his kids were involved.

After the ballet, we headed over to the Old Spaghetti Factory for dinner. We had planned to go to Christmas In The Park but it was raining hard so we decided to skip that. We got to the restaurant just ahead of the dinner crowd and had wonderful dinner. Mom opened her presents and the staff presented her dessert spumoni ice cream with a candle. The whole restaurant sang happy birthday to her. Half of my dinner came home in a box. I just finished eating leftover pasta and broccoli. yum!

Then we dropped her off and I finished my Christmas card design. Looks like I need to mail 145 cards and print another 20 or so. Must pick up card stock and a envelopes. I'm a few short.

Thoughts and prayers for a friend from Puzzle Pirates

If I get a chance to chat with her again, I'm going to ask if she has an LJ. Last night after I finished my card design, I logged on to puzzle pirates to check my shops. They've been eased along for the second half of the quarter and mostly ignored since two weeks before finals.

The first thing I noticed was my senior officer has reappeared after several months of being gone and is now handling his shop again. YAY! I'm free to just run my own!

Then I got an "Ahoy" from my friend Boochinmarie. She was wanting to talk about the battle she's having with acute lymphocystic leukemia. I had no idea she was sick at all and here she is battling it for the fifth time in 19 years. She's unusual because most people are stricken with this before they're 20. Hers hit the first time at 22. She had a bone marrow transplant the beginning of November and has been in the hospital ever since. They're trying something new with her. They've taken donor marrow and somehow charged it with destroying the existing marrow. It's supposed to be easier on her than the old way of destroying her marrow with radiation then giving her new marrow. After a while she won't have to take anti-rejection drugs.

Last night she was running a 103 degree fever and was waiting for them to come and get her for a spinal tap to find out exactly what is going on to cause the fever. I told her I'd send positive thoughts and asked her permission to send prayers. She said she'd appreciate it. This afternoon I happened to think, the more prayers she gets, the better!

So if you're inclined, please send her prayers and positive thoughts! She's in an emotionally painful place, too. She lost her dad, grandmother and another family member in the last two months. As she said, 2005 really sucked for her.

I'll let you know if I see her on Puzzle Pirates and get an update. I'm so worried that I won't see her there again.