Vince had a school violin concert tonight. Due to the constraints on time, we busted out the Stouffer’s French Bread Pepperoni Pizza for dinner tonight. Vince thought it was excellent. I thought they were better when I was a kid, but I told Vince that the French bread pizza was more Donald’s thing. I really enjoyed Hot Pockets – maybe next week.
I think this might have been the last time I will go into the JW gym. Thirty years ago, I played the same violin in this same hall.
Jeremy is smiling, but really, he feels lousy. Another cold is going through the house.
Here’s the last piece. Vince is in the front row on the right side of the screen under the conductor’s armpit.
I gave Edda a haircut this weekend. Jeremy’s been struggling with Edda’s hair during the morning routine, I’m trying to make it easier on him. I left it just long enough to gather into a ponytail even though, really if you aren’t going to put it up, it’s better to be off of the nape of the neck with a cut that ends ear length. I think I’m going to have to cut it again next weekend.
Today we drove up to right across the street from Camp David. It’s glorious up there in the Catoctin mountains. Early spring with the pale leaves.
We were headed to a place called Greentop run by the League for People with Disabilites. They run a summer camp and a weekend a month with overnight stays for kids like Edda. They had an open house there today and we went and toured the facilities. They’ve been around since the mid 1930s in facilities built by the WPA. The camp was originally organized for people with polio. Now they serve people with all types of disabilities including adults, the longest camp-attendee has been coming to camp since 1962.
We saw the kitchen.
The cabins.
The pool, the rec hall. It was a rainy day. We had ice cream and bought all sorts of T-shirts.
We loved it. Jeremy loves the Catoctin area, he wants to go to camp there. We know nothing about the waiting lists, but we’ll look into it. Many questions were brought up – seizures? no problem. pureed food? no problem. diapers? no problem. gluten free? no problem. hates arts and crafts? no problem. The toughest part is the sleeping, Edda needs to sleep through the night without making noise. Hmm… she kind of does that. Mostly? Anyways, we’ll try. Maybe it’ll be ok.
The director said there are no goals at camp except to have fun. For some kids, success is just making it to camp. For other kids, success is participating for a couple of minutes in an activities. I’m hoping Edda has a good time. They have some openings for a weekend in December…that just sounds cold.
On the way home, we stopped off at a favorite pie stand and got an apple pie:
Here he is prepping in the green room. Kara, Edda’s camp counselor from JCC, babysat Edda tonight, so it’s the first time Jeremy and I sat through a whole violin recital together as Edda dislikes recitals.
Vincie practiced and he did pretty well. I haven’t seen him play in a long time, I miss his lessons, and he usually practices after I go to bed. He’s a better violin player than I ever was. I never moved out of first position, but there he is – moving his fingers up and down.
Relieved afterwards:
Then we went out and met up with a few other Martins to have the usual Sunday night dinner on a Saturday night in a Chinese restaurant!
It was bike to work day – I biked to the Rockville Metro celebration with Jeremy and got a free bagel.
I visited Maureen at Edda’s old elementary school to give her Edda’s old jogging strollers and wheelchairs which Edda has outgrown. They are in a temporary holding school as the elementary school is being demolished and completely rebuilt. I miss elementary school – the kids are little and even though they all have intense needs, you feel like you can just pick them up and carry them with you and take care of them and protect them always. This is not the feeling I get in middle school.
Vince went downtown to meet Jeremy after work on the Metro (by himself!) to go to an art installation under Dupont Circle.
Jeremy’s commuter bike needs a tune up, he’s a very consistent biker to the Metro and he was a little reluctant to give it up to the shop for a few weeks as it is bike to work month and everyone is keeping a tally at work about self-propelled efforts of getting to work. It’s also helpful that everyday he bikes to work, he saves $5 on parking. The bike has internal hub which is a little unusual, so we had to drive it out to Silver Spring to find someone who had all the right lube/tools etc.
I admired this yellow bike. Jeremy is trying to encourage me to bike more places. I don’t mainly because I’m lazy.
Jeremy is dreaming about his next bike. Saving his pennies from birthday presents/Christmas presents and his weekly fun fund allowance.
Jeremy spent today putting together the Murphy bed – it’s fully installed, we are ready for you! Come one, come all, we have a true guest room now.
Vince, Edda and I went to Target today to find a birthday card for Bette. I asked Vince to find the best fart/butt card he could. We got a pretty good one.
Eric made a wonderful seafood stew with lobster… mmmmm…..
Jeremy took me out on a date today. We first went to the Chinese noodle place. Then we went grocery shopping at the new Twinbrook Safeway. Jeremy is making “hot dish” for dinner sometime this week – this involves a lot of tater tots.
Then we spent some time in the afternoon moving furniture around. The huge Murphy bed made it into the au pair room.
The couch that used to be in our bedroom made it through Vince’s room, through the Jack-n-Jill bathroom and out, finally, into Edda’s room. Lucky for our guest, they no longer have to sleep in Edda’s room while Edda sleeps in our closet, but more importantly, they don’t have to share a bathroom with Vince. The cleanliness can be a little unpredictable in there.
