The Better Story

Naomi is on a Rising Stars team which meets twice a week after-school. Rising Stars is a program that tasks kids with creative problem-solving. Last night after team practice Naomi and I cruised over to the grocery store and had the following conversation.

Me: So how was Rising Stars today?
Naomi: GREAT!!!
Me: Yeh? What are you guys up to?
Naomi: We’re doing a news-show with commercials and everything. I really want to do a throw back in time so I can be Shirley Temple.
Me: For a commercial?
Naomi: No, in the news-show. You know, a story about who Shirley Temple was and how she died.
Me: Hon, I think Shirley Temple is still alive.
Naomi: So?
Me: Well, news stories are generally non-fiction.
Naomi: I have to think up someone who’s already dead?
Me: You could always do a "Where Is She Now" story about Shirley Temple. But, if you want to talk about somebody’s death: yes that person should be dead.
Naomi: Like Elvis.
Me: Yes, Elvis is dead.
Naomi: Then maybe we could do a story about how the aliens came down from their spaceship and killed Elvis.
Me: -------
Naomi: Yep, that could work.
Me: Is that how Elvis died?
Naomi: No, mom, he died from drugs just like Michael Jackson. Lied to his doctor, got the drugs, and died from them. I just thought the space alien angle was, you know, more interesting.

Talent Show

After weeks of early morning rehearsals Naomi took center-stage at Prescott Elementary School's Talent Show last Friday. Ms. Sundiah, a teacher from the Before-and-After school program, had spent weeks teaching and rehearsing with Naomi a traditional East Indian dance.

Friday night was the big show and it was one of those moments I felt a little awe-struck. Naomi was both poised and focused. She was gracious in accepting a top prize from the judges and the compliments from her peers. As the auditorium emptied she sought out other Talent Show performers to tell them "good job" or "that was sooooo funny!"

I was pleased just to sit back to watch Naomi and, when it came time to go, hold her coat.

Th!nk Tank

"That's the deal. People in politics like to talk a lot, but they don't like to answer specific questions." ~Naomi, aged 7.

Distant Voices From Other Rooms

I ordered a cappuccino today. For years this hasn't been a habit of mine. Not since my early twenties when I landed a summer au pair job outside of Edinburgh.

All summer I'd meet another au pair, Anne-Marie, for cappuccino at least once a week. She was Dutch, I was an American, so as foreigners our employers had set us up.

That first Saturday we met by the Walter Scott Monument. After a pleasant hello she grabbed me by both shoulders. Leaned in to kiss the air next to my cheek, and suddenly stopped to ask "How many kisses you give in America? Two? In Brittan it's two, in Holland we kiss three times."

Needless to say we were fast friends. Traveled to the coast, ambled around castles, sketched the crowded city skyline, ate biscotti and ice cream. We'd go to libraries and museums. Arranged playdates for the the children we were minding. Sported guide books and walking tours, tipped the street performers, darted around narrow streets. She introduced me to both Janis Ian and cappuccino that summer. And always opted for the front row seat atop the top flight of a double-decker red bus.

I've never spoken of that summer without a giggling description of my friend Anne-Marie from Amsterdam. We never exchanged addresses, never exchanged letters. Just packed our bags at the close of that summer, got our passports and traveled off from each other. It's that way when you're twenty-something. It was for me anyway. Letting go lightly.

But I thought of her this morning. In the thick of a Midwestern winter I wondered if she was similarly married and feeling less bold in her thirties? I wished her well, mentally kissed the air next to her cheek three times, and ordered myself a cappuccino.

The Weeklong Cold

Our household spent the whole week with a late-winter bug. It's the kind of cold that moves in and stays a while. So I laid in bed last night, creating a list of my favorite things and least favorite things when I'm sick.

Favorite Things When I'm Sick:

1. Hot Pudding
2. Sad Movies
3. Plush Kleenex
4. Socks & Slippers
5. Juice of All Varieties
6. Clean Sheets
7. Fleece Everything
8. Hot Showers
9. Fresh Air Once In A While
10. A Foot Massage
11. Naps With Cats
12. Spearmint Smelling Lotion
13. To-Go Food (Preferably Delivered To My Front Door)
14. Super-Power Prescription Decongestants

Least Favorite Things:

1. My Car Sporting A Mysterious Warning Light of Some Kind
2. Taking My First Calc Test Of The Term
3. Compulsively Worrying About House/Work/School Duties I've Shirked
4. Nightly Snowfall
5. Morning Routine Of Scooping The Walk/Scraping The Car
6. Saline Nasal Spray (ew)
7. Wet Mittens
8. Cold Toes
9. Waking Up With A Sneeze

Proper Lens

"Your living is determined not so much by what life brings to you as by the attitude you bring to life; not so much by what happens to you as by the way your mind looks at what happens." ~ Kahlil Gibran

Spellin' It Out

N: Some of the kids in my grade are interested in girlfriend-boyfriend type things.

Me: Really, what do you think of that?

N: I think it's embarrassing and there's a lot of crying involved.

Me: Well...

N:...like this boy, Gabe, he comes up to girls at recess and tells them they're his girlfriend. Later he breaks up with them and all the girls cry.

Me: Really?

N: Yeh. Except my friend, Aleeah. She didn't cry. She told Gabe, "Look, you never asked me and I never said I was your girlfriend in the first place. So alls I ever said is we were friends but, you know what? Now that you're being so mean to me? Being friends just isn't my thing. You know, friends? The only thing we were to begin with? Yeh, that relationship has ended. It's over, Gabe. O-V-E-R."

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Reminder: Naomi, Gabe, & Aleeah are all in the Second Grade.