Performative

Saturday was a long day for Noa. Following a late night at the Burke Winter Dance, they had orchestra bright and early the next morning. Afterwards, they opted to skip their usual post-DCYOP lunch in order to get home early for an extended nap in order to be semi-refreshed for their viola recital that evening, where they performed Marin Maras's Old French Dances, IV. Le Basque.

 

The recital was smaller than usual. Partially because they had the pianists perform earlier, but also because, as Dr. Enrique informed us before it started, the parents of several of his students lost their jobs and so their children weren't up for performing, and one student's family had just been deported to Argentina. And so he and his wife ended the recital with a Rachmanioff piece that kind of embodied how everyone around here feels.

Dance Party

It's been rough lately in the DC area, what with mass terminations, frozen contracts, plane crashes, and... other stuff. So it was bit of relief to have President's Day off to recover from the latest round of indignities that the federal workforce and those adjacent to it have suffered. Even better when your fifteen year old mentions they have a school dance that Friday and you get to distract yourself by spending the afternoon shopping with them for the perfect outfit.

Noa actually found their outfit of choice pretty quickly (and on sale!) having spied a very Lydia Deetz from Beetlejuice inspired dress that complimented their latest hair color perfectly. That meant we had plenty of time to round out our afternoon with a smoothie and a stop at the Lego store.

Noa had a lovely time at the dance (though apparently they didn't actually dance for most of it) and even stayed beyond the required minimum (for a progressive school, Burke is weirdly rigid with it's school dances and don't allow entrance after 8:30 pm or departure before 10:00 pm), though that meant they were pretty exhausted when we woke them up for DCYOP rehearsal the next morning...

Plunged

 

While we weren’t able to do a proper plunge on the Potomac this year due to the plane crash, we were able to do an ice bucket version. It was pouring down rain in DC, so Elaine got pretty wet too, but trust me that ice bucket was cold 🥶

(click here for all the pictures)

Purple & Blue!

When I was in high school, dying my hair purple was a rebellious act that caused my father to question my judgement and ask his friends what should be done in response. (Thankfully mom was more level headed and noted my grades were fine and hair dye would wash out.) It gives me no small amount of joy that now I get to share wholesome parenting moments with Noa dying their hair all sorts of wild colors, sharing insights from my slightly rebellious youth. I didn't dye my beard with them this time, but did share that I dyed my hair green during rehearsals for Les Miz, and while my director wasn't too pleased, it did wash out with plenty of time to spare before opening night. Hopefully Brent will be as understanding with The Sound of Music opening next month... 

 

Surprise!

I thought we were done celebrating my 50th until the mystery trip this summer, but Mom and Don invited us up for dinner on Saturday and surprised us with the best present ever – Owen! Don drove down to SMCM in the morning and brought Owen home for my birthday dinner, and we couldn't be happier to see him!

I'm 50!

  

Since it fell on a Tuesday, we kept my actual 50th birthday a bit low key, just opening a bottle of champagne to celebrate. But on Thursday Elaine took me out for a wonderful dinner at Jośe Andrés' Bazaar. We celebrated Elaine's 50th their so it felt appropriate, and what better way to celebrate than a lovely date night dinner with my favorite person in the world! The hope is to travel somewhere fun with friends to do a bigger celebration this summer, but that will be a surprise ;-)