Sunday, May 17, 2009

Murphy's Law (or is it Kolp's?)


Yeah! Katie's dance recital is over and everything went smoothly. After last night's fiasco and this morning's surprise, I was not sure how things would pan out. But I said my prayers and went forward, and everything seemed to fall in place.
Let me back track and tell you about last night. You see, Katie was in four numbers, three of them all within the first part of the first half of the show. But when we had our practices at the theatre Friday and Saturday, everything was out of order. When the dress rehearsal began, we realized Katie had only one dance in-between two of her dances, and she had to change tights, leotards and shoes (this year was a non-costume year). Well, Katie is very modest and we spent too much time looking for a private place in the dressing room for her to change. Suddenly we heard someone calling for her, Katie began to get upset, we hurried, someone came to help and by the time we made it to the stage, her number was over. She was devastated that she had missed her dance. We did learn something from this though- she would have to change backstage, with lots of help, and that is what happened today. I sat on the side of the stage and waited to help. The teachers came and helped, too, plus Katie layered pink, black and tan tights to make it easier...and, we made it! I told Katie she should feel like Hannah Montana because performers have to change so fast, they have a lot of people working on them. That made Katie feel pretty special.
The next snafu occured this morning. You see, when we got home at 11:00 last night, I decided I should wash all of Katie's dance clothes so they would smell fresh for recital. Thank goodness I kept the finale outfit out- it is nonwashable. Anyway, I'm sure you guessed what I discovered when I pulled her stuff out of the dryer. More crayon marks. All over her dancewear. And she needed to be at the theatre in an hour. Sigh. What could I do at this time? I stuck my head all the way in the dryer, looking for the culprit (I was sure I had gotten all the crayons out), and I found two small left over crayons that had settled down in the groove between the drum and back wall. I got those suckers out so fast you would think I had found gold. Then I cleaned the dryer real quick with bleach and went inside, head down in contemplation on what I would say to Katie. I checked everything over not once but twice, then asked Pete what he thought, and we decided that the marks were so minimal that they would not be visible on the stage. But Katie would have to wear some older jeans for one routine because the jeans I had just bought were very noticeably marked up. Katie almost started crying when she found all this out, but when I asked her what else could we do, she nodded in understanding like a big girl. I was so proud of her acceptance (I could learn a thing or two from her).
After all these roadblocks, the real deal went off beautifully, thank you Lord. Katie was a dancing queen and felt like a glamorous girl, I could tell, with all that make-up she had to wear. I told her she was getting good experience with make-up so that when she was forty-one like me, she'd know how. Then she looked at me, smiled and said, "But mom, you're twenty-nine, remember? So I can start wearing make-up then!" (I always tell my kids I stopped aging at twenty-nine as a joke). 'Don't grow up too fast, I'm not sure if I'll be able to keep up,' I thought, as I watched her head off for the dressing room.

3 comments:

Jodi said...

Congrats on getting through the weekend. Dance recitals. Sigh. My little girls are big girls now with little girls of their own. I hope I get to see some dance recitals in the near future with big-eyed fillies, knobby-kneed, fingers fluttering, growing into their toes.
I'm enjoying keeping up with you, Laurie.
I remember crayons in the dryer. More than once. Roll eyes, shake head. Kids. Wish they would never grow up though.

Holli said...

Laurie, we have had crayons in the dryer, too. These things happen. It was definitely a blessing, in my book, that Katie's costume was spared the brunt of the marks. It's just one more thing to laugh about at the end of the day.

Jeni said...

LOL.... it doesn't stop at kids clothes :). I'm forever finding chapsticks and business cards & matches. Sometimes if I'm lucky, I find money.... that makes it fun.

Katie looks so happy! I love dance recitals.