Talent Show

This is not a crafting post. This is just about me, and my day, and since I didn't take any pictures of my day (because I feel weird about putting pictures of other people's children on the blog,) I'm just going to throw this one up:

(I like this picture. It's not flattering, but it's not awful, and this is how I usually see myself when I look in the mirror. Plus it's with Audrey, and she's highly ornamental.)

I keep getting myself in trouble. I'm serving my third term as PTO president at the middle school (because no one else wants to do it and I didn't say no---well, actually I did say no, but no one else wanted to do it and there were things that needed to get done, so the no didn't stick.) PTO president is really not a good role for me. I'm basically shy, have some social anxiety issues, am organizationally impaired, can't stand conflict and I'm phone-phobic. Despite this, I spend a lot of time thinking about what could be done to improve the middle school experience and include the kids more in school activities, and over the summer Audrey and I cooked up the idea of having a "Spirit Club."

Our Spirit Club (the "'Stang Society"/school mascot is a mustang,) does not shake pompoms at sporting events. We are more of a girl scout troupe who does arts and crafts projects and brainstorms about how to improve school morale. Every Wednesday, under my direction, we meet at school, have a snack and do something like make posters for an upcoming school event or decorate lockers for the current sports teams. It's a small group, but not without its personalities. Most of the girls are nice, some of them are a little loud, and only one of them has bitten people. And tweaked other girls' noses. And pulled their hair. And stomped on their feet. And spat on them. But that is a whole different story, I was just trying to get to today. In 'Stang Society we democratically decided that our project for the year was going to be a talent show. I liked the talent show idea, it's fun, and gives kids who may not shine academically or in sports a chance to shine, it also makes an event that parents will come to. We had a talent show at our elementary school every year and I always enjoyed them---but I wasn't the adult in charge then.

Today we had talent show auditions. I was terribly anxious that we would have a huge unruly crowd, and almost hoping that no one would come so I could call it off, but we had a nice manageably sized group. However, no one wanted to go first. Finally we got the most prepared looking person, a baton twirler to go, and she was adorable. Seriously adorable. She dropped the baton a few times, but she was still great.

Next we had a couple of girls who sang quietly but well, one of them while blushing furiously and trying so hard not to make eye contact that her eyes were rolled back in her head like she was able to read the lyrics off the inside of her skull.

Then we had a big group of girls, one of them who sang well, one of them who sang passably (which is better than I can do, so I consider passably an accomplishment,) and two who were not only nowhere near the microphones, but one of them stood with her back to the audience. Then the same group of girls danced, and the one who sang well also danced remarkably well, until she heard someone say she danced like a slut and stormed off-stage. Ironically the name caller was up next, and while she was technically a good dancer, she moved in a far more provocative manner than the girl she insulted. As she left the stage I told her she was good, "But, uhm, for the talent show you can't touch yourself."

Then there was several minutes of these same kids playing with other tracks on their Cd's and sort of singing/dancing and sort of goofing until I broke things up.

There were a group of boys who break danced in an entertaining way, though their leader had to serve a half hour of detention before their act could go on, and one of the boys lost his pants.

Then there were several minutes of the same kids playing with other tracks on their mp3 players and sort of dancing until I broke things up. And since basketball practice was now over we acquired a big group of players and managers who were only a little bit noisy, but terrified the last reluctant performers, so I had to tell them to move on.

Things finished up with a shy guy who did card tricks (which worked a third of the time,) a girl with Down's Syndrome who did a very sweet and passable acapella version of "Tomorrow" from Annie, and two girls who sang Taylor Swift songs together who deliberately went last and had so much fun with the microphones they didn't want to go home.

All in all it went well. If I can get them to polish things up, keep their pants on and not offend anyone, it could be a very good show. But it was a harrowing experience, and we still have the actual show at the end of next month. Why do I get myself into these things??? (The son says it's because I'm silly and looking very hard for excuses not to clean house.)

On the Needles

I would like to call this "How Sherry Got Her (Blog) Groove Back," but I can't guarantee I'm really back in the groove. I was doing pretty well at the crafting and blogging, and then I fell off the wagon, and frankly, many of my latest posts have been a) pathetic and b) using pictures stolen off the kids cameras. In an attempt to be able to get my pictures loaded onto project pages on Ravelry I upgraded my Flickr account back to Pro, and was able to see comments people had left on some older pictures I had taken. They were NICE comments, on my knitting and photos and fabric collection. I was favorited. I was asked to post a picture in a group. You know what? I LIKE that kind of stuff.

I also joined a swap on Ravelry. It's a St. Patrick's Day swap. I love swaps. I haven't done a swap in ages. I love putting a good package together, and I love the surprise of getting a package from someone I don't know yet. Some of my swap partners have gone on to become very good blog buddies. I LIKE that kind of stuff too.

So even though I'm still need 3 second gloves and half an afghan from my belated Christmas knitting (this is okay, really, Hamills don't mind celebrating Christmas in February, or July, or even next year,) I'm working on other things. This is St. Patrick's Day Swap Plan B. Plan A involves plain knit mitts, with applied crocheted shamrocks and embroidery, which will be an experiment. Plan B will be sent off if Plan A doesn't work out. If Plan A is successful, I am totally keeping Plan B. I haven't kept a pair of mitts yet, and I could really use them when I'm on the computer and the house is chilly.



The yarn is Elann's Superwash Bamboo, a superwash wool and bamboo lightweight worsted, which I am loving. It is soft and springy and not splitty. I'm loving the "Cedar Green" color, and bamboo has a unique sheen that I like. This is Smariek Knits' Four Rib Braid Fingerless Mitts pattern ( http//smariek.blogspot.com .) Marie writes a very follow-able pattern. Even so, I've ripped it back to nothing from this point once already, because I CANNOT correct mistakes in cabling. I can't. One forward instead of back and it's all over. Sigh. For this reason it is not TV knitting, and I can't do it in short bursts like when I'm waiting to pick up the kids from school. For that, I have this:



This is based on Chrissy O'Malley's "Simple Reversible Baasketweave Blanket" ( http//yellowhousedesigns.blogspot.com ) and is destined to be sent to Afghanistan as part of the latest Afghans4Afghans campaign. I'm having a love/hate relationship with the yarn. Moda Dea (Coats & Clark) discontinued "Cartwheel" and it went on clearance at Joanne's. Cartwheel is lovely stuff, 100% wool, soft, not itchy, not splitty. Some of the colorways are gorgeous. I used "Raspberries" and "Misty" in my last A4A submission. This is "Coral Reef" and was the last remaining color available in the greatest quantity (possibly for good reasons.) Individually none of the colors are offensive, together they don't rock my world. Despite the fact that I'm not loving the colors, several people, including the husband and my dentist have assured me it is "not bad," and it will be warm and soft (and will block nice and flat once I'm done.)

Time to go be productive. . . .

New Year, Cautiously Optimistic

I can't believe it's been over a month since I posted. We had some weird weather during that period of time: weeks of snow, a warm spell, snow melt and inches of rain causing flooding (not personally, thank goodness,) then back to bitterly cold. I spent at least part of the time like this:



Though frankly, I think Norman would rather not share the cozy goodness of large, heavy, satin-lined fun fur goodness that we call Nanook of the North with me:



Christmas was low-key and spent with the family. Thanks to procrastination and heavy snow we didn't cut our own tree this year :( we had a small artificial one in the attic that had to suffice. Not the same, but really, my only complaint.

Despite the fact that I laid in a supply of "midget food" (frozen mini-quiches, tiny egg rolls, little pizza bagels and the like,) and sparkling cider, Audrey ditched us on New Year's Eve to be with friends. John and James and I played an everlasting game of Risk that went well past midnight, turning on Dick Clark barely in time to see the dropped ball stop. Still, toasts were made and funny hats were worn.

Before school started Audrey dyed the tips of her hair green (it was meant to be turquoise, but is more of an Easter Egg green:)



The big news with Audrey is she has her first official boyfriend (not the bearded guy in the picture, that's just John, who's not real keen on the whole Audrey having a boyfriend idea.)

James is a bass-playing Knowledge Bowl god. He divides his predawn hours between chamber orchestra and jazz band, practices with a high school garage band on the weekends, continues to grow taller than anyone else in the house, and in general is getting old.



Old I tell you, old.

I have to take pictures of projects in progress, because I have them. I had a whole lot of FINISHED items last fall, but now I have four different second gloves on the needles (if you've heard of Second Sock Syndrome, you know what I'm talking about.) I started a scarf. (A scarf!) I still haven't finished the afghan that was to be a Christmas present (luckily we spread Christmas out over the year in the Hamill family,) and I started not one, but TWO blankets for the new Afghans for Afghans campaign. I am bummed because I STILL can't get my pictures to load onto Ravelry---that click-and-drag from my Flickr pages is not working for me.

Tuesday was Inauguration Day. For the record, I DID think I would see an African American President in my lifetime. I really expected to get more of a lift out of watching the ceremonies than I did. Sure, I had a few chills, and maybe a moist eye once or twice, but I'm still feeling daunted by current conditions. So I'm still calling it cautiously optimistic.