spring break
Usually by this time of year, Rico is so absolutely, completely, devastatingly stir crazy that it becomes impossible to stay in our house. He basically points to the van, and nobody even questions it, we just drive until we are somewhere new. It's rarely anywhere far reaching, or even terribly exciting, but it's not HERE. It's not the SAME. Because many of us, (but one in particular), loathes SAME.
This year he seems to be mostly OK with it. For now, "same" is the couch, a ride or two in the car, treatment, a few phone calls, a fistful of medication and sleep. For now "same" is alright.
As far as the rest of us go, we're trying to feel like spring breakers.
After obsessing about it for a month, Punk finally prom-posed to his girlfriend. Yeah "prom-posed" it's a thing, and if you're a teenaged boy, you kinda have to do it. Luckily he didn't have to dress up like a giant chihuahua and dance through the cafeteria or anything. (Though he DID promise her that when he prom-posed he'd want the whole world to know, so he'd engrave it on the moon - nothing like setting yourself up for certain failure right?). He managed to pull through with his artistic skills and sense of humor, and needless to say he now has a prom date.
While Punk stayed home with Rico and Yoda, Kooka and I took a group of our dancers to a convention in Minneapolis this Sunday. It's a weekend event with tons of different styles of dance taught by professional choreographers, and artists from New York, LA, Europe. We all had smiles on our faces when the jazz guy pointed them out for having the best timing in the room. We smiled a little bigger when the LA dance lady told them they were doing everything right. We actually cheered a little when the old Russian ballerina called Kooka up onto the stage to show everyone what "lovely technique looks like". But we cheered even louder when the lyrical guy presented Kooka with the "weekend warrior lyrical dancer" award for the whole room. It was a good day for Kooks.
Yoda has spent spring break drawing countless hopscotches on the sidewalk, begging to stay up later than she should, reading chapter books, baking with her big sister, watching 80's movies with her big brother, and basically reveling in the fact that we are all here together. She's also become very impatient on the whole Harry Potter situation. Apparently I'm not reading them fast enough, and while Kooka and I were away for the day, she decided to curl up in the beanbag and read book 4 by herself. I asked if she could even read and understand all of the words, to which she replied, "Yes, most of them but the book was so heavy that I couldn't hold it up, so I had to stop."
Yoda also got to visit the radiation room today. She was pretty excited to see the big robot that was going to fix Daddy's cancer. After the technicians let her use the remote to turn the giant machine on its side, and to slide the table in and out, she became very excited about the snack bar, where she shoveled down four saltines, and continued to ask how many sugars she was allowed to put in her cider.
The rest of the weekend was as lovely as it could be right now. Our neighbors brought us incredible organic fajitas, and our friend David stopped by with fresh, homemade New York Style cheesecake. We're not talking about the kind you just whip up with cream cheese - noooooooooo. We're talking about that stuff you have to beat fresh ingredients into while a cabbie insults both you and your mother; turn your oven on, then off again, then back on; have a rabbi bless it while your mother shouts in Yiddish that you're doing it all wrong; and wrap it in cold towels soaked in Rudy Giulanni's tears.
OK, I'll admit, I have no idea what makes a cheesecake "New Yorky", but Rico does, and he said it was just as good as anything he'd ever had from a NY bakery. This is reallllllly saying something about that cheesecake.
In case you're new - Rico is New York snarky about his food. I have an idea that if I took a fresh cheese pizza straight from Lombardi's in Little Italy, and set it in a Domino's box, he'd take one bite and declare it "garbage." Sooooooooo kudos to that cheesecake - you 'da real MVP.
Kooka wasn't home, but Punk also declared it delicious, as did Yoda. I took a bite, and while it WAS fantastic, I saved my piece for Rico. I haven't seen him that happy over food in many months, so I will gladly take a snack-pack pudding for dessert, if it means I get to see that smile again.
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
This year he seems to be mostly OK with it. For now, "same" is the couch, a ride or two in the car, treatment, a few phone calls, a fistful of medication and sleep. For now "same" is alright.
As far as the rest of us go, we're trying to feel like spring breakers.
After obsessing about it for a month, Punk finally prom-posed to his girlfriend. Yeah "prom-posed" it's a thing, and if you're a teenaged boy, you kinda have to do it. Luckily he didn't have to dress up like a giant chihuahua and dance through the cafeteria or anything. (Though he DID promise her that when he prom-posed he'd want the whole world to know, so he'd engrave it on the moon - nothing like setting yourself up for certain failure right?). He managed to pull through with his artistic skills and sense of humor, and needless to say he now has a prom date.
While Punk stayed home with Rico and Yoda, Kooka and I took a group of our dancers to a convention in Minneapolis this Sunday. It's a weekend event with tons of different styles of dance taught by professional choreographers, and artists from New York, LA, Europe. We all had smiles on our faces when the jazz guy pointed them out for having the best timing in the room. We smiled a little bigger when the LA dance lady told them they were doing everything right. We actually cheered a little when the old Russian ballerina called Kooka up onto the stage to show everyone what "lovely technique looks like". But we cheered even louder when the lyrical guy presented Kooka with the "weekend warrior lyrical dancer" award for the whole room. It was a good day for Kooks.
Yoda has spent spring break drawing countless hopscotches on the sidewalk, begging to stay up later than she should, reading chapter books, baking with her big sister, watching 80's movies with her big brother, and basically reveling in the fact that we are all here together. She's also become very impatient on the whole Harry Potter situation. Apparently I'm not reading them fast enough, and while Kooka and I were away for the day, she decided to curl up in the beanbag and read book 4 by herself. I asked if she could even read and understand all of the words, to which she replied, "Yes, most of them but the book was so heavy that I couldn't hold it up, so I had to stop."
Yoda also got to visit the radiation room today. She was pretty excited to see the big robot that was going to fix Daddy's cancer. After the technicians let her use the remote to turn the giant machine on its side, and to slide the table in and out, she became very excited about the snack bar, where she shoveled down four saltines, and continued to ask how many sugars she was allowed to put in her cider.
The rest of the weekend was as lovely as it could be right now. Our neighbors brought us incredible organic fajitas, and our friend David stopped by with fresh, homemade New York Style cheesecake. We're not talking about the kind you just whip up with cream cheese - noooooooooo. We're talking about that stuff you have to beat fresh ingredients into while a cabbie insults both you and your mother; turn your oven on, then off again, then back on; have a rabbi bless it while your mother shouts in Yiddish that you're doing it all wrong; and wrap it in cold towels soaked in Rudy Giulanni's tears.
OK, I'll admit, I have no idea what makes a cheesecake "New Yorky", but Rico does, and he said it was just as good as anything he'd ever had from a NY bakery. This is reallllllly saying something about that cheesecake.
In case you're new - Rico is New York snarky about his food. I have an idea that if I took a fresh cheese pizza straight from Lombardi's in Little Italy, and set it in a Domino's box, he'd take one bite and declare it "garbage." Sooooooooo kudos to that cheesecake - you 'da real MVP.
Kooka wasn't home, but Punk also declared it delicious, as did Yoda. I took a bite, and while it WAS fantastic, I saved my piece for Rico. I haven't seen him that happy over food in many months, so I will gladly take a snack-pack pudding for dessert, if it means I get to see that smile again.
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
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