March Break, day one

My friend Margot is working mornings Monday Wednesday and Friday this week, so our friend Collette was watching her kids this morning and I'm watching them Wednesday morning (I don't know about Friday -- maybe's she's dropping them off at the pool hall with twenty bucks and their health cards). Collette came over with her three and Margot's two, so we had three girls and four boys. The girls drew little pictures and broke food into tiny pieces for the fairy that lives in Eve's room. The boys were engaged in various intellectual pursuits in the basement. Collette and I were bettering ourselves with a physics program in the family room. We fed the kids some healthy organic fare for lunch.

It was arduous. It was exhausting. Margot owes us big.

Tonight Matt and I are going on a date -- dinner and the symphony. I got him tickets for his birthday, which really is a gift, because he loves the symphony and I...well, I love classical music. I don't so much get the concept of watchcing people play it. My mind wanders, or I get fixated on the second violin's moustache, or I wonder if the piccolo player and the bassoonist are doing it, and then I realize I've missed the whole second movement and I feel guilty because we spent good money to be here. Then I think about last week's episode of Lost and wonder about Jacob's inherent goodness or evil, then I pinch my arm to focus myself. It'll be fine. He'll be happy. I'll have lovely background music for my inane musings. I suppose there are worse ways to spend the evening.

As usual, links brought to you by Mary-Lynn's unfathomable awesomeness.

Comments

Anonymous said…
I watched a documentary about steroid use, and as part of the documentary they pointed out people in other fields who use performance enhancing drugs. Like, Viagra in the adult industry or No-Doze for long-haul truckers.

One of the groups they mentioned were symphony players, who apparently use beta blockers to keep them relaxed. It's a way of coping with the performance anxiety when everyone's looking at them. I will never look at classical musicians the same way again.
March 15, 2010 at 12:49 PM
Tracy (AKA The Mayor!) said…
Too funny, the whole symphony...I can SOOOO visualize it....me, I'd just outright nap LOL....& trust me, I so relate to all those rug rats, I have spent years watching over all my working friends kids, 3of whom are within a few blocks of me, & all 3 of them have 3 kids....& I have 4....2 of these families we are particularly close to, so I often find myself with 10 kids, PA Days, summers, after school, often at the park with all of them, & have even been crazy enough to have all 10 at the cottage with me, JUST me, a fair bit over the summers. Thankfully, the majority are now between 9 & 13yrs old, so it's not particularly hands on...just very very chaotic!! But I admit, I love it LOL!! :-D (also posted the links for the whole button making crap if you wanna check it out LOL!)
March 15, 2010 at 1:39 PM
Mary Lynn said…
Hee...so glad I'm not the only one whose mind wanders here, there and everywhere at a symphony. I do love evenings out sans kids, though. In fact tonight would have been an excellent night for an evening out. Alas, I am at home with two cranky children who clearly have NOT adjusted to the time change.

p.s. I'm pretty sure that the piccolo player and the bassoonist broke up after that whole incident with the cellist, the Ouija board and the butter.

p.p.s. I dunno what I'm talking about either.
March 15, 2010 at 5:45 PM
Julie said…
lol! sounds like a lover-ly evening out. and how can you not let your mind wonder at the symphony. it's beautiful creative music that you are supposed to listen to and let your subconsious take over. well, that's what i like to tell myself.

mary-lynn, i heard it was "i can't believe it's not butter" and a set of dominos. crazy how things get distorted.
March 16, 2010 at 4:56 AM
Mary Lynn said…
I stand corrected, Julie...I stand corrected.
March 16, 2010 at 5:34 AM
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