Boys & Girls Club

Hi Mom and family,

It's 4:30 AM, Thursday morning, dark and quiet. Ziggy just erupted from the couch in a barking frenzy because a big German shepherd mix came to the security screen door, and now he's curled up again on the couch with his eyes closed and his big head tucked into his curled up legs.

Yesterday I finally seemed to regain my energy, but on Tuesday I was still pretty tired. It was a cold and windy day, the kind of day which, during my working life, would prompt me to say, "It's the kind of day when you wish you could just stay in bed and read."

 Well, I did! I spent a good part of the day reading a love story about an excessively tidy and dignified lady who slowly realizes she is falling in love with the messiest guy on the planet and his messy children.

I did finally go through my bills and found out which ones absolutely must be paid before I go to California tomorrow.

In the late afternoon I went up to the Boys & Girls Club and made the calls to the parents of the kids who practice on Wednesdays. It was a very good thing I did, because in the process of waiting for the desk staff to look up the phone numbers for me, I  found out that sports practices will be increased to three days a week. This means that the drama club kids who are in soccer will miss soccer practice for an hour on Wednesdays.

I was really glad I found this out, because I was thus able to point out to them that drama club rehearsal time should be moved a half-hour earlier, or else I'd need to go round them up out of soccer practice, which would take up half of my precious rehearsal time! Whew! That was a narrow escape. (We only have about three more rehearsals before we perform before about fifty of their parents and friends, as I will miss one rehearsal because of coming back from California on Monday!)

This is the kind of thing which is always happening to me at the Boys & Girls Club because I am an unofficial part of their program. Drama is not on their regular agenda. So if the "powers that be" in the organization decide that all the clubs will have sports practice more often, that schedule change happens and I work around it. On the bright side, they always tell me how much they like the drama club and how grateful they are that I'm doing it.

While there, I got in a good unofficial practice in with Jaycee, the girl who had the loss of confidence on Monday. Also, I found out from a parent that one girl will have to quit, and found a girl to replace her in the role.

I had another narrow escape earlier in the afternoon, A hair-raising, heart-pumping narrow escape! I had just parked in the far corner of the small Wells Fargo parking lot, near where it adjoins the huge parking lot which serves the Safeway and assorted other stores.

There was no moving traffic in the parking lot, and I started to cross over to go into the bank.

Suddenly I heard the screech of brakes and rubber as a souped up 80's car came tearing into tiny parking lot at high speed, burning rubber to make the two 90 degree turns at the entrance! I skedaddled out of the way, terrified, having to run five or six steps to avoid being hit. The car continued through the parking lot (two more rapid 90 degree turns, loud screeching the whole way) before he screeched to a stop at the exit.

I tried to see the license plate number, which I could not read from that distance. I looked up from there to see the youth, a shock of brown hair falling over his forehead, glaring at me as if to say, "I'm memorizing your face in case someone turns me in for this!" And he was gone, with another screech, turning on to the Apache Trail at high speed.

There were half a dozen cars parked in the parking lot. Amazingly, but he didn't hit any of them as he careened through it.

I went into the bank, shaking.  The tellers were sympathetic, though they said that could not hear the screeching from inside the bank. I had already filled out my deposit slip and had everything ready, which was good because I was too rattled to think straight for a few minutes. I truly think that if I'd been a person who could only walk slowly, I'd have been hit!

Yesterday, Thursday, I woke with the wonderful sensation that my usual energy level had finally returned. It's just really been a hectic month! I was finally able to get some things accomplished.  In the morning I got an hour or show of shredding done and made a small dent in the piles of papers in the guest room. I got all of the pepper plants planted in the one remaining garden bed, and covered them with crates so that they might have shade to help with transplant shock.

I took photos of the newly planted pepper plants, and then forgot to bring my camera with me to Starbuck's.

I had a very good practice with the Wednesday drama club group. The phone calls the day before had helped; everyone was there. I was pleased when Jaycee asked me, after practice, if she could go over the other scene (the one we practice on Monday) with me.

One of the kids in the club, a tiny little sprite of a thing, has trouble with school work, both reading and math are very difficult for her. I sometimes help her with her homework if she's still there at the club after practice is over. She always, at first, denies stridently that she has any homework. Because the level of homework she is given is beyond her ability to do on her own, it's very frustrating for her. What makes it worse is that her older sister, also in the drama club, functions at grade level or above.

Their mother is very nice, but  she picks them up from the club at 7:00 PM, having come straight from work. There cannot be much time for her to help them with homework in the evening.

First we did some reading, and and then I found a math paper in her backpack. Problems like "6+7".

"No, I can't do those, I hate them, I don't know them, no, no, no!"

I coaxed her, saying, "Let's just do one one them."

"No, no, no!"

This page of problems had a little bit of space after each problem (her other math paper did not) so I showed her how to make six little circles, followed by the "plus sign", then seven more little circles, and to count all of the circles. She got very excited, and did twelve problems in a rush! She was able to count very accurately, and never lost track, so every answer was correct.

That was about the limit of her enthusiasm, but it was still a very satisfying accomplishment for her, and for me.

I just wrote this Thursday morning, Mom. I will send it mid-day today, and I look forward to seeing you tomorrow in the late afternoon.

My list for today:
wash clothes
tidy house
do more shredding
Connie's to pay for earrings she made
pay water bill
Starbuck's
pack
water front of lot across the street, 
& back yard and front yard




Love,
Lennie