Entries in events (11)
Away from home
I dropped him off at camp this morning. The real kind of camp, where he has to take a sleeping bag and pillow, and toothbrush which he will have to remind himself to use (along with the shower, let's hope he reminds himself to use the shower, too).
I didn't do very many sleep away camps when I was little. Once. I remember going to horse back riding camp when I was in elementary school. It might have been a Girl Scout camp. I remember helping in the mess hall, and mucking out stalls. I remember that of all the girls for some reason I just couldn't get the hand of the trot, or maybe it was the canter. I remember the frustration. And I remember the fun, but I also remember being very, very homesick at night. That feeling lasted for me long into high school, when spending a week at band camp was a delightfully magic time for me every summer, but with nights that left me feeling bereft of my own bed and family. I even cried sometimes when I was away for simple overnights at friends' houses.
So you'll forgive me if I was a little worried for Calvin. Logically, in my forethinking brain, I have no real concern. Calvin is more easy going than I think I was as a kid, and I think he'll take these first two nights away from home and family (ever!) like a champ. In fact, if anything he's likely to be sorry when the week is up (which is a feeling I also remember very well, especially at the close of band week every summer), but that didn't stop me from worried just a teeny tiny bit somewhere in the back of my uncontrollable reptilian brain. So we all talked about it a bit the day before I dropped him off. We told him that when I was young I suffered terribly from homesickness, but that his dad not, and I told him some of the coping mechanisms I had used when I was young to get through a long week.
Then in the car on the way to drop off, eary on Wednesday morning, Calvin told me that he was really, really going to miss me, and he asked me to take care of his animals for him. I asked him if he was starting to get worried, but he said that no, he just thought that would be a sweet thing to say so that I wouldn't feel sad. He was using my own coping mechanisms on me.
Wisdom is sometimes lost on the old.
choir, events, life, milestones Wedding weekend, Indian style
As a stay at home, I don't get to experience glamour very often. Usually I get out of my pajamas, and if I'm going to the store I try to pick out matching clothes and put on makeup, but dresses, jewelry, and heels often escape me. There just isn't any need for them.
So when the opportunity for a glamorous weekend presents itself, I look forward to, and get nervous about, for weeks beforehand. What to wear? How to accessorize? Is Jon's suit clean? Do I remember how to iron? Does the kid have clean underwear? (okay, that last one is a given, but I was scrambling to make sure he had clean socks and dress shoes that fit, especially during sandal season).
And in the end, it's not the style or the glamour of the weekend that has me nervous and excited, it's the people. All those adults! All those adults in one place! All those adults in one place with their real world, real people jobs that I don't know how to talk to. Because your average joe doesn't want to discuss the newest fads in homeschooling curriculum. Time to take the old, dusty conversation starters off that shelf way in the back of my brain—it's socializing time!
Last weekend we were included in the very glamorous, very posh, very exciting wedding weekend (aaallll weekend) of Jon's cousin. The wedding was an Indian culture wedding and all that goes with it. The entire weekend was not only entertaining, but educational as well. We ate delicious Indian foods, we took part in Indian traditions like the Sangeet (the fun dance party the night before the ceremony) and the Baraat (the groom's procession to the ceremony, complete with dancing entourage), and we got to see a traditional Hindy ceremony (performed in ancient Sanskrit nonetheless). I was loaned a saree, and helped, or folded, into it, and Calvin and I both received henna tattoos.
And the people. The people were so welcoming, both Jon's own family and extended family, and also the bride's family, who could not have been more welcoming or gracious the whole weekend through. It reminded me of my brother's island wedding in a way, because most guests stayed in the same hotel, where all meals were provided, and most events took place either there in the hotel or just two blocks away. There were so many guests at the wedding, in fact, that we ran into others everywhere we went, and enjoyed a sort of companionship that way, even with people we'd never met.
And elephants. Did I mention there were lots of elephants?
And now I can put away the dresses and the heels and return to my homeschool wear, which sometimes really is just pajamas, I admit it.
from our hotel room
on our way to the Sangeet
breakfast for the wedding guests before festivities started
gathering in the hotel lobby for the Baraat
getting the party started—the Baraat took us from the hotel to the performing arts center where the ceremony took place
before the cocktail hour and then reception, which was in the lobby, then at the ballroom in the performing arts center
