Yep, it’s that time again. My somewhat annual post so it seems. How does time fly by so quickly? Every time I see the date of my last post here I want to grab time tightly in my fist and slow it down. There have been some precious moments lately that I just hope I can hang on to. Milestone birthdays, graduations, new opportunities, overcoming challenges, they’ve all had roles to play over the past year and I am grateful for each one.

Speaking of roles to play, I took lessons from a local improv group and took part in an evening showcase at a café and while I wasn’t on stage long it was something I had challenged myself to do. I thoroughly enjoyed the classes and will hopefully take part again next winter.

The reason I have to wait until winter is because I interviewed for and was accepted as a member of a Community Emergency Response Team which has training dates in the fall on the same evening I was taking my improv classes. I’ve missed being part of the search and rescue team I co-founded and when this opportunity came up I jumped on the chance. I may not be as physically fit as I once was but perhaps this will incentivize me to work on that.

DS turned 19 and graduated high school the same week. He has learning disabilities that affect his ability to read/write, perform mathematical calculations, give his time and spatial awareness issues and a few other things so we couldn’t be more proud of his accomplishment. He also worked at a co-op in rough carpentry with a construction company which is his career goal. We are hoping that the contacts he made there will result in a full time job during construction season.

I moved into the role of President of the Toastmasters Club I belong to and have lots of ideas and goals that I hope come to fruition. I took over as President yesterday so we shall see how it goes. The other club members are all very supportive and have so much to offer as well. It is a fun group and I am looking forward to all of us developing our skills together.

There are other developments that have happened over the past year but I will save them for my next post.

Until next time… “Keep your face always toward the sunshine – and shadows will fall behind you.” – Walt Whitman

~ Crimson ~

Crimson: “Go to bed in your room not on the couch.”

Son (half asleep): “Hang on I gotta find something. I forget what it’s called… the head rester thing.”

Crimson: “You mean a pillow?”

Son: “Yeah, that.”

Car ride conversations between mother and son…

Crimson: “Dear Pizza…(dramatic pause)…The End.”

Son: “What, no plot or character development?! What the heck is going on?”

S: Just becasue I’m not a hippie doesn’t mean I can’t have a poncho!

Son (playing Angry Birds): Take that piggies! Whose mighty now?!?!?! That’s right! I am! Muahahaha!

Note 1: Yes he actually did the evil laugh. In fact he’s pretty good at it. He used to do it when he was a baby. Is that odd do you think?

Note 2: If you know my son, you know he is actually one of the sweetest kids there is…

H: S you gotta go in your bed now.

S: (half asleep) Wait.

H: Wait for what?

S: I’m doing something (laying still with eyes closed).

H: Doing what?

S: I have to lay here and then do something and then go to bed.

H: Go to bed honey.

S: Be quiet

D: NaNa, do you like this music (plays a Screamo song)?

NANA: What is it? It sounds like animals fighting.

CRIMSON: (laughs!!!)

I was on Twitter tonight. Wow, that form of social media is so hard for me since I tend to be verbose and I am not a fan of overusing netspeak to shorten things up. It’s probably why I don’t have many tweets when considering the length of time I have had a Twitter account. For some reason I find reading something that has a lot of slang to be jarring when I read it, like hearing brash, sour notes in a delicate sonata or reading numerous repetitions of the F word in a Shakespeare sonnet. It just disrupts the flow of language. I am not against the evolvement of language, the lexicon of the English language changes everyday and there is nothing that will stop that. I am not a language snob, and I don’t try to throw in fancy vocabulary to make myself appear smart. Goodness knows that the more I learn the more I realize how very little I know. I took a Mensa test once and got a 129 but I read these informed, well reasoned opinion pieces on various topics I find interesting and I feel so unintelligent in comparison.

When I get this introspective it usually means I am in what I call a low cycle (I am bipolar). It’s the time of year. Crappy Christmas related memories from childhood and melancholy memories from my teen years. Some of them I can’t figure out whether I should be sad or happy. When I was 18 my best friend died as the result of a car accident. The last time I saw her was on Christmas Eve. I am grateful that the last words I ever said to her were that I loved her but infinitely sad that she is gone and that this event that should be a joyous occasion has just become a yearly reminder that I will never see her again, never hear her amazing laugh that conveyed just how much she loved life, never hug her, never talk about boys and relationships, never share our dreams for the future with each other. I cherish the wonderful memories I have of her but I deeply long for the memories we could have made but never got the chance to.

S and I have a busy winter and spring coming up for plays. He is in a production of Pippin as the little boy Theo who is the son of a young widow. I’ll be doing props and costume changes for that one. Rehearsals for that one overlap with a production of Oliver where he will be playing one of the orphans. I am not sure what backstage work I’ll be doing for that one if any. Then I have a production of Cabaret where I will likely be running the lighting boards. At least for Cabaret I won’t have weeks and weeks if rehearsals to go to, it will just be tech week and the run of the show. I adore theatre though so I am really looking forward to it.

Son (who is 7 years old): I’m going to see if they have any candy left.

Crimson: Looks like they don’t, sorry sweetie.

Son (looking sad): What did I ever do that I got bad karma?

Crimson: (LAUGHS!!!!)