A Midsummer Night's Dream

One of my coworkers came in and asked me "If my daughter was cast as Nick Bottom in "Midsummer," ... is that a good thing?"

I almost burst into tears.   Yes, for the record it is a good thing. A very good thing.  Standing in the office kitchen, I was instantly transported back to hot summer days in grassy fields in 2007 when Jess first did Rebel Shakespeare, and that was her first role ever (well, aside from the magic fish in kindergarten).

My co-worker had no idea what the play was about, and so I gave him a synopsis that I had written for parents the second time Jess did it, in High School (2009?) When she was cast as Quince instead of Bottom.

Needless to say, she crushed both roles but ... Bottom was written for her. For her loudness, over-the-topness, over-actingness, for her wonderfulness.

I miss this. I miss working with the high school kids. I miss Shakespeare and summer time. I miss multiple productions touring across the area. I miss my daughter being this person, not that she isn't this person - she will always be who she is but, I oh my gosh I really really loved this phase of her.

Nine years. It is so weird, so long. Yet so short a time. So much has changed in our lives since this wonderful summer. I have a hard time wrapping my head around it.

 I look at all these kids, like Titania there with Bottom. She lives in California now. Demetrius now has his masters degree in composition from Tisch at NYU and is in a cappella groups.  The girl who played Peter Quince, she's living not too far from me with her boyfriend, and her smiling face lights up my Facebook feed.  A lot of the other kids, I have no idea where they are but I am still in touch with their parents.

Wondering just how creepy it would be to go show up at my co-worker's kids' school to see the play.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/amusings/sets/72157600950510135 is a photo gallery of this performance.

Electric Hand Saws and Safety

We had ordered two cords of wood this year for the wood stove. Our supplier usually sends us short wood, since our wood stove is kind of small. For some reason, we got a lot more pieces that are just too big for the stove.

I decided we needed an electric handheld saw that could be used safely indoors, and so now Doug is having a field day cutting pieces of wood down to size to fit into the fire.

Geoff came down while I was taking the tool out of the box, and evaluated the equipment. He looked around a little bit and said "You did buy safety goggles to use while operating this equipment, didn't you?"

Well, to be honest, I thought about it but I didn't actually buy any. Geoff was a little shocked. Doug told me that he has shatterproof eyeglasses so he isn't worried about goggles.

Geoff declared that neither he nor I could use the handsaw without goggles on.

Guess that EMT training pays off in his being super safe. Or he finally is aware of all that Scout training he received is clicking.

Don't tell him but I used it without goggles. And felt guilty. Because I know better.

Today he is taking the first of two licensing tests, it is a practical  test - hands on, hard stuff. He has to know it all inside out. He then has to take a written test. And then he is fully licensed. So fingers are crossed (and safe, far away from electric saws), and hopes that he'll pass and it'll all be great.