May day

Happy first of May! I am not going to be doing anything about may baskets this year, because I am getting over a cold, the weather is awful, and there's so much else going on. But I can at least include a photo of the baskets my mother made for her 80th birthday party. She'd be 97 on Monday if she were still here, so that means it's been 17 years since that party, and thus 17 years since Rocket Boy and I announced our engagement at that party (we were married in August that year). A lot of things have happened during those 17 years, as things do.

One year on May 1st I helped the boys fix up a may basket for our elderly next-door neighbor, Mrs. E, but she didn't know what it was. She grew up in Chicago and apparently they didn't do may baskets there, or perhaps she'd forgotten about them. We lost Mrs. E a week ago. She died on April 25th at the age of 102, less than a month before her 103rd birthday. It wasn't unexpected -- she'd been on hospice for months -- but it was still a surprise to the twins, who hadn't encountered a lot of death before. Several people died when they were very little: my mother 7 weeks before they were born, then my Uncle Bob, our neighbor and good friend Clifford, my Aunt Esther... probably other people I'm forgetting. And our cat Whiskers died when they were 3 or so. But no one for quite a while. When we first moved back to Boulder, the twins immediately adopted Mrs. E as a surrogate great-grandmother, and her daughter Arlene as a surrogate grandmother. They used to come running back from Mrs. E's house with a note from her: "Can (Kid A) and (Kid B) have lemonade, chocolate milk, or plain milk?" I would write on it, "Anything! Thank you!" and they'd take it back to her in glee.

The memorial service is Saturday afternoon. I'm going to try to go if I can stop coughing so much. I think Kid B wants to go too, and Rocket Boy, but Kid A doesn't think he would be able to sit through it quietly.

The day after Mrs E died, of course, was the big fundraising dinner/silent auction that I've been so involved in preparing for. Rocket Boy and I made a special trip over to the school to deliver the goody bags I've been sewing, and then at 2 pm I went back to help set up. In this photo you can see the tables and chairs set up in what they call the "Heart" of the school and the "cafe" area. There were some last minute disasters: the company that had agreed to supply compostable dinnerware did not send any cups or salad bowls, and there was nowhere to buy 700 of these at the last minute. Fortunately we had non-compostable cups available and the kitchen crew came up with some little paper containers to use as bowls.

I went home to get the boys dressed in their finery (white button-up shirts and dark pants) and to fight with Kid B about his long hair. I wanted to do a ponytail, a man bun, a braid -- no no no no no! We finally settled on two big barrettes which at least got the hair off his face. I thought the mom who was wrangling the kids would send him home again, but she didn't. I did point out to Kid B another mom pulling her son's long hair into a ponytail. All the long-haired girls of course had their hair pulled back in various attractive ways.

The first seating was at 5:15 and wow, the line was long! Both boys did their job as servers, but they were a little disappointed that they didn't have more customers. Kid A served one family and then Rocket Boy and me. Kid B served one family and then Rocket Boy eating a second dinner. And that was it -- dinner over. A bit of a letdown after a year of anticipation.

The goody bags sold, all 75 of them. Here they are in a not very attractive display, underneath a different display for school t-shirts, and for a while I didn't think we'd sell very many. But then some kids must have seen what some other kids had and suddenly everyone wanted one! And kids did spend a lot of time examining the different colors and patterns before choosing, so I'm glad I made an effort to find cute ones.

After the silent auction I stayed on until 8:30 or so, acting as a cashier and helping with last bits and pieces. I was tired but happy when I finally walked home carrying my empty goody bag storage container.

Kid A had come down with a virus on the day of the dinner (but acted as a server anyway, oh well), and by Sunday Kid B had it too. So on Monday, probably due to post-dinner exhaustion, I came down with it, and I've been sick ever since. Also, it SNOWED Monday night -- we woke up Tuesday to heavy wet snow all over everything (about 4 inches), but I was too sick to pay much attention to it and I did NOT get out my camera. Fortunately, because it's been so warm, the snow didn't stick to the roads or sidewalks, so no shoveling. And today it's all gone, because we had a bunch of rain that washed it all away. The photo shows our front yard today, not a speck of snow anywhere. Spring in Colorado, gotta love it.

I can't think what else to write about. Rocket Boy is still planning to leave on May 6th or 7th, so we've got less than a week to go. My being sick has forced him to take over a lot of my duties, even reading stories at bedtime, and the twins are loving it. Last night we had pancakes for dinner and Kid A insisted on frying them -- he wants to have pancakes again tonight so that he can perfect his skills. Kid B wants RB to make spaetzle so that he can become an expert in that dish. I think they're finally just beginning to realize that their father is leaving. Of course, he has a reservation to fly back for their "graduation" on May 22nd, so that'll help a little. But he'll only be back for a day and then gone again. It's going to be an adjustment.