Piano Recitals, Jackets And Missing Friends

Posted by Vulnadia on Dec 17, 2010 at 12:19 AM Wow, what a day this has been. I had THOUGHT that after having Christmas Lunch with the babies and remembering to carefully send the teacher presents this morning, that I would be done done done with all the school stuffs. I had even carefully checked the teacher websites for any updates and they were deceptively positive that I was in fact DONE with school save for carpool for the year. BOY was I wrong!!! I happily picked up the babies today at the usual 3pm timeslot. We headed home and let Kian put his remaining Christmas store purchase under the tree-he had misplaced his Daddy's present yesterday and remembered it today once he got to school! Innocently enough, Vivienne and I headed out to pick Bregon up from fencing practice (he has beefed up practice since qualifying for the Junior Olympics this past Saturday.) When he hopped in the car and said, "Let's fly" I KNEW something was up...he was all sorts of stinky smelly fresh-from-fencing hard kiddo, but this was a kiddo with a mission, one he didnt manage to share with me until we got to the Olive & Youree intersection. You see, it was 5pm (baby dinnertime) and he was already 30 minutes late leaving from practice to begin with, but he wanted me to hurry WHY? Turns out, he managed to miss the whole "We have a piano recital" bit of intel while out performing for his Sibling's Christmas Program this past Monday. Oh Goody... He not only had a recital tonight, but it was 30 minutes away from starting, he was gross from practice & I wasn't anywhere near dressed for the occasion-& it would take me 10 minutes to get us home, and another 10 minutes to drive back to school...IF I was lucky & traffic was good to me... He needed to shower and smell good before getting dressed...which he planned on wearing his TUX...kid you not...not something you just hop into out of the shower, either...arrrggghhh!!! Vivienne in all of her 4yr old sensability, turned around as the light turned green, and told him quite matter of factly, in fact it was quite demure, that, "We do not have time for this!" She was dead serious and totally right...we dont have time to make this one, but we had to try! Somehow, while Bregon showered and put on his Tux, I changed and tried to salvage the hair & redo the makeup to where the public wouldn't be frightened by it...ack I hate going into parent public looking awful, too! We actually made it back to school by 535, but I will NEVER know how we managed. Apparently, come to find out, the recital was in fact a last minute thing...NOBODY was really all that prepared...parents, students...you name it...but my kid cranked out his Mozart as if it were the most natural thing in the world... Apparently some kids play chopsticks on the fly, mine comes equipped with Mozart...sonata in C, all 5 variations... And then it hit me...that weird memory...& feeling that something...or rather someone was missing...it always seems to happen during piano recitals... Used to, in middle school, I went to every recital and met my friend Jenny and her kids there-we would all sit together and try and tape & take pictures of both kids while they played...she wanted her son to learn to play like Henry (student of the year, can do everything grande Henry) I just wanted my kid to manage to play... But we did every recital this way...we frantically made sure the boys were dressed decently, and giggled over this one little boy who always seemed to be wearing the same oversized coat...one he must have borrowed from big brother...or daddy maybe...who knows, it was just that huge on him though! That's what reminded me actually...not just the absence of my friend Jenny, and her son, my son's best friend Brandon...but that coat...you see, the same little boy is still taking piano with my own son...and he is STILL wearing that silly jacket...it has been at least 4 years, and now that jacket is much too small on the boy... And sadly I've only my own son to share this with...the giggle that the boy still wears that darned jacket...Jenny and the little boys moved back to Nebraska shortly after the accident that took Brandon from us all...so it's very bittersweet...I think of them often...but especially at these lonely piano recitals... Tonight I sat on the wall right next to the door we came in because we were literally the last one's there...but they didnt' start without us...and I dutifully videotaped the entire thing, thinking that I might could post it to share with my friend...in Nebraska...and maybe she will be sad, but maybe she will find the jacket bit funny too...