SuperFishie Returns

Gaaaaaahh.

Just when you think you have the world figured out...

Da Boss had to meet with the Big Kahuna about the curriculum. "He loved the ideas, but we're putting things on hold for a few weeks. And the trading cards aren't happening as such; just a piece of paper we'll copy. And he wants to change the set. Now we're having a rainbow, a wavy wall, and a big door, with a little door set into it for puppets. And he wants knock knock jokes."

So the first two scripts have been moved back to the end of the season, meaning I have to come up with the next few in record time. I've had to add in the new elements, take into account the new set design (which the Big Kahuna will not have to lift a finger to create, and we have four weeks to build it for a theatre that is not yet completed) add two characters, and come up with knock knock jokes that have NOTHING TO DO with superhero school.

Knock Knock
Who's there?
Heaven
Heaven who?
Heaven you had enough of knock knock jokes already?

I'm laughing so hard I'm crying.

SuperFishie

I done it.

This week there was a meeting scheduled to plan the fall curriculum in Preschool Worship. I like these meetings; usually they're one great honking brainstorming session, and some of the best stuff comes out of them. Two new team members were added recently, so there's potential for fresh new ideas. Of course, I pre-empted that a little.

In talking to da Boss about Superhero themes, I asked if she wanted me to prepare something beforehand to get us started. I think she was relieved at the burden lifted from her shoulders. I came up with 12 names, mostly lesser-known Bible characters who could be qualified as heroes. I walked into the meeting with notes on stories and themes, and passed them around. Instant hit. They wanted a few more popular names added, so three more went on to the list. Fifteen weeks of Superheroes.

But wait! There's more!

Because they need the scripts so early to pre-record certain segments, and because I am the one writer who makes deadlines, I asked for (and got) the assignment for the first 6. Then two at the end. As I was leaving, I did remark that I'd write them ALL if if wouldn't step on any toes. Which got me the invitation to do three more. So I have 11 out of 15 scripts, and possibly more if the other writer (who does NOT meet deadlines on anything else and has not written before) screws up.

I also sold them on the idea of Hero Trading Cards to give the kids each week. Each card would have a picture of the person, his Super Power, story details, and a Hero Homework Assignment; basically an exercise to take home and do with parents to extend the lesson. That morphed into SuperHero School, and there we are. Essentially, I served them up the next three months on a platter, and they ate it up. With relish.

I finished the first script for Aug 13th last night, and I think it's perfect. It's Daniel, and his Super Hearing. With theme music: "The Lion Sleeps Tonight." Hee!

I can't wait to do Moses - I can hear it now...

Somewhere, beyond the sea
Somewhere, waiting for me...

Raindrops on Roses

Moonlight viewed while everyone else is asleep, perhaps everyone in the whole town...
Teaching with an extraordinarily well-thought-out lesson...
The first bite of banana in a banana split...
A book that inspires tears and laughter...

I loved The Sound of Music as a child. There's something about the earnestness of Julie Andrews. It's comforting to watch and see someone with so many struggles try to make a strange place brighter. The indomitable spirit. (I love that word) It's something to aspire to.

Cold fresh red seedless grapes...
The smell of new-cut grass...
Sheets out of the dryer, cleansed and smelling of bleach...
The skillful hands of the hairdresser at the shampoo station...

I used to watch that movie over and over. I always felt my stomach clench when Rolfe meets up with the family in the cemetary. I knew what he would do, and yet this time, I hoped with all my might, he would not blow the whistle. He would help them, escape with them.

An in-utero soccer game...
Connecting with the softball, and the accompanying ring of the bat...
Counting freckles on a youngun's nose...
The taste of chocolate after a Lenten fast...

Rewind the film, though, and look at Maria. Certain of her convent decision, instead sent to look after rigidly disciplined children. Free-spirited and young, confronted with unquestionable command. Subversively, then openly advocating loosening of the restraints, relaxation of rigidity. Parallelling the dilemma of submission to the Nazis in their reunification with Austria.

Earth's last gravitational tug during takeoff...
Crisp, cold snow planted at the base of a warm neck...
Triumph of a well-written script...
Soothing strong hands on weary shoulders...

I'll soon share this movie with the Little Critter. I want her to love it as I have. And I think she will, as she has often asked me to sing My Favorite Things to her when she isn't feeling her best. And do you know, it works for her. It never fails to bring a smile. It never fails to soothe her.

And I'm hoping, after the evening I had, that it will work for me as well.

Rude People Suck

That's gonna be my new bumper sticker.

Granted that people grow up in different environments, and that Miss Manners' books aren't exactly flying off the shelves these days. Granted that I have high expectations of others. Granted that not everyone raises their children as I do.

The Little Critter had her birthday party Friday night at the pool. We rented it for two hours, and planned food, a pool relay race, a cupcake cake, and a cooler full of drinks. And, of course, her very own, first-ever sleepover, with her bestest friend, KT. I adore KT, and I adore her mom. I've helped her out when they've been amazingly busy, or ill even. Just Thursday I had picked KT up from the hospital where her mom was in the ER getting checked for a post-surgery complication. We were all excited to have KT over, just the two girls.

The pool part was wonderful. The kids were obedient, had a wonderful time, praised the food and the goodie bags, and made the LC's party memorable. Of the kiddos who came, only one's mom didn't RSVP, and I had prepared for that anyway.

Of course, just because one calls and replies, that doesn't mean they have good manners.

One little classmate (who I'll call "Mermaid" for obvious reasons) and her mom called to RSVP and the mom said "We're going to the movies, and Mermaid can't come unless we can drop her off early."

Normally, no problem. I do this with my friends and the LC's friends all the time. It's cool. IF YOU KNOW THE PERSON WELL ENOUGH TO ASK THAT. I've met Mermaid's mom exactly once. Well, I'll be running crazy the last bit before the party, but sure, ok.

THEN I get a call from Mermaid's mom the day of the party saying "Mermaid wants to spend the night."

Excuse me? Since when did that ever become acceptible behavior? Try, never.

I found out why she asked, too. KT was sacked out soon after we got back to the house. The LC was trying, but Mermaid kept her up. Finally in tears, LC came to our room and broke down. We had to hold her and hug her and cuddle her and let her pass out, after almost an hour of calming down, on our bed. And when we try to move her into her room, Mermaid is STILL awake, fooling around in the bedroom across the hall where they were to sleep. At this point it is 2:00 in the morning and I am ready to call her mother to come get her. I really should have.

Instead I set the kitchen timer for 30 minutes and passed out. When it went off, I checked her and she was finally asleep. So I crawled back into bed and muttered curses until I fell asleep.

They were up with the birds in the morning, too. (HOW do they do that?) An hour before I was taking them home, I warned everyone "Get all your things together." As we pull out of the driveway, Mermaid remembers she forgot her flip-flops. So pull back in the driveway and wait. She doesn't get out. I have to force her to go get her own shoes. And nobody comes to the door to let me know there's a grown-up home when I drop her off. She just goes in and disappears. No thank-you, nothing.

Believe me, word of that is going to get out. This poor kid is never going to be invited anywhere. And the whole thing is just topped off by the fact that, during the opening of presents, Mermaid proclaims in a loud voice "LC doesn't have a present from me."

Mom invited her daughter over early, invited her daughter to spend the night, and didn't even think of a present.

Pretty soon, I'll have to send out applications to friends of the Little Critter's. Complete with background checks. Rude people need not apply.

OK, back to the road trip...

Gainesville is a neat little town. It has one of JJ's perfect downtowns (though there is the bypass so you have to mean to go there to get there) with the little town square and the old clock tower and the shops with apartments upstairs. You know. We passed an antique store and I swear, visible from the road, were displayed little statues of Jake and Elwood. (We also had to stop and ask, and it was $400 for the set, and if you buy it I will slaughter you.) We had to cruise through there 5 or 6 times until he had his fill. Then off to Gram's and catching up with the folks.

JJ's mom has moved from our side of the state to Gram's house to be there for Gram, who is going to be 100 this month and getting a touch of dementia. At least that's what the docs say, not that I saw any evidence of that, so it must be intermittent. So it was a good thing JJ's mom was there to see to the details of her sister's death, anyway, and we were glad to see them all because they have been looking after things up there a long time. And let me tell you, my mother-in-law? Rocks. In the history of mothers-in-law, she deserves a place in the Hall of Fame. Or at least a spot on the All-Stars roster. Meddling? Uh-uh. Guilt trips? Never heard of them. Unwanted advice? Puh-leeeze. This woman, who took care of JJ (baby of the family) well into adulthood and could have left him a prime candidate for making a horrible husband and mama's boy, instead has let him go live life without her needing to add an opinion on everything. And I thank God every day that she did, that when we married she seemed to actually rejoice in his going off on his own. And that she says things to me like "You're the best thing to ever happen to JJ." Think of your own mother-in-law, if you happen to be married. Does she say that stuff to you?

I love these people, and I hate seeing them only at funerals. So I'll draw a curtain over the service, which was touching and personal, and the after-service get-together in the hotel, which involved way too much snack food, as well as forty-somethings comparing comic book collections of their youth (not that they whipped out any Marvel editions while I was there) and discoursing on the topic of Things I Can't Eat Anymore, and the hotel switching and all. I'll just say the Little Critter went to swim that last evening and I went with her.

So we're up early Sunday ready to leave and go to Gram's to say goodbye, because we have another long road trip ahead, and I say "Hey, Oklahoma is 5 miles away and I've never been. Let's go!

JJ is in a good mood this morning, so he agrees (nevermind that I'm driving) and we putter along northward.

Things I said:

"Hey! There's the Red River! That's not so big, is it?"
"Hey, there's a CASINO right there one mile ahead!"
"Hey! I've got a $20 bill burning a hole in my purse!"

Things JJ said:

A bunch of things I didn't listen to.
"So where in the Bible does it say you can gamble?"

Party Pooper. I think he was worried I'd go in there and empty the emergency fund. So no gambling for Fishie, but, and this takes the cake, last week, after we'd been home a while? Dude goes to the convenience store and buys, get this, LOTTERY TICKETS.

LOTTERY TICKETS! Jeepers, man, if you're going to throw it away, it might as well have some FUN attached to it! You know, the lights, the buzzers, the cha-ching, the bells? But no, he slips a fiver across a counter and goes home to check the numbers on the website the next day and THEN tells me about it.

So my grand trip to Oklahoma was cut short by the fact that JJ is occasionally a doofus. And a spoiler. Because me? As soon as I'd seen Oklahoma I was ready to hit the road for Texarkana and see me a little bit of Arkansas. And from there hop down to Shreveport and see me a little of Louisiana, the part that doesn't have the National Guard posted. And then we could say we hit 4 states in one day. But JJ looked as if I had asked him to drive to Upper Volta instead of tool around our little State here. Man, I hate that look.

But I did learn that Oklahoma looks quite a bit like Texas, except this: Your first site coming in to OK from Texas is a long, squat casino complex. Your first site coming into TX is a naughty book/video store (we call them LookLooks in my family, a story for yet another day) called "Welcome to TeXXXas."

There's a lesson there, but I can't think what.