This last week was an active one socially, including my great niece’s school talent show. I have attended two previous ones, although I have not gone since Covid (actually, I attended a talent showcase last year), and they were excruciating events. The show is run by the kids and it has been generally long and very disorganized, with long gaps between the acts, with acts deciding not to go on and other children suddenly deciding to do something. Also, it is now structured like “America’s Got Talent,” so they have child emcees trying to tell jokes between the acts, and we have to hear from the judges between each act, and then there are various trophies awarded at the end. I understand that my great niece has been taking second place for years.
When my middle brother and his wife moved here, I said, “Whatever you do, don’t go to the talent show.” However, my niece and her husband had tickets to a show in Portland for that night, so they asked them to go. When I heard that she was performing one of her own songs, I decided to go, too. However, we made a plan to go in shortly before her performance, with our sister there to tell us when to come, and leave afterward.
First, they told me the talent show started at 7 when it actually started at 6 and then no one corrected the time. Luckily, I already planned to go over to my brother’s around 6, so by the time my brother sent me a text telling me to come, I was already almost there. Then, there were fewer acts and it was a lot more organized. When we got there, the small children were still performing (it’s a K-12 school), and we saw three of them. First a little boy singing “Do, a Deer,” and we were at the back, so all we could see was his head, as he was apparently sitting on the stage. He was cute. Then there was a boy on a unicycle, and finally a small little girl who didn’t know the words to her song so was reading them off a piece of paper, and poor thing, she got lost in the middle.
After the intermission, we saw one act by the older kids, a guy doing some funny Disney song, and then my great niece. She is getting a strong voice, although she still gets a little too quiet in places. Her song was good. I could actually understand most of the words, and it was a moody Roy Orbison-like ballad. We watched one more act after that, a girl belting out a song off-key, and then my brother got up as arranged and we left, although by then we were feeling awkward about it. Sure enough, we only missed three or four acts before it was over, and we heard that she had won. So, we all felt bad about not having stayed to watch her get her trophy.
My sister brought the kids over to my brother’s house so I could take them back home, as they live just down the road from me. I would have brought them in, but I didn’t get asked or even know it was needed. We were playing 13, so they had to wait for a couple of hands (I came in second this time—I usually lose), but we all got to congratulate her. Then I took the kids home and saw that their new puppy was already twice as big as last time I saw him.
The other social event this week was a Oregon Symphony concert on Sunday. I went over to my brother’s house around noon and we drove in for a 2 PM concert. We got there early enough to attend the pre-show talk. It was structured like an interview instead of just a talk, like I am more familiar with, and we thought the interviewer asked questions that weren’t very good. My brother had chosen the concert because he wanted to see the advertised soloist, Simone Lamsma, but she had canceled. Instead, we saw Kerson Leong, who was good. The guest conductor was Kristina Poska, whom we thought lacked fire.
After the concert we went to Szechuan Brothers for dinner. They liked it very much, and I burned my mouth out with my favorite wontons in hot chili sauce. They used to be called spicy wontons, but they are very spicy, although only rated a 2 at the restaurant.
Here, it has turned cold and wet. Yesterday we had a fire in our stove for the first time in several weeks to a month, and it never got out of the 40’s. It’s supposed to dry out today and maybe even get sunny for a day or two.
I attended all my classes last week, although I thought I made a mess of part of my painting in art class. I had painted some grass green, and the substitute instructor told me to cover it with the gray-white color I’d been using for some bushes, because the green would show through too much. Unfortunately, the paint was still slightly wet from the week before, so it came out a light green and looked terrible. But with oils, you can always correct things by painting over them. I’m glad my regular instructor will be back today.
My friend Ray and I have been working on our cruise. The latest thing we tried to do was put my frequent flier number on my ticket, which he bought. At the time, either I didn’t have one or didn’t know it. Anyway, I signed up or got back in. I can’t remember which. I think I may have been a member from way back 20 years ago when I used to travel a lot for work. Anyway, he tried to put in my number, and it said the name didn’t match the one on my ticket, or vice versa, I guess. So, I went into the United app and found the place to change my name, and it was missing my middle name, which I usually don’t use, but we used on the ticket because it was an international flight and the names usually have to match. So, I typed in my middle name and thought it took it. He tried again, and asked me if I was using my maiden name or something. So, I went back in again, and I was not, but my middle name wasn’t there. I tried again, and this time I got a stupid message that said that if I was trying to change my name, I had to provide proof, such as a copy of my marriage certificate, a scan of my driver’s license or of my passport. I instead put in an insulting message, because I was so ticked off. It’s a mileage program for heaven’s sake, not Fort Knox!
Ray suggested that since I had to scan my passport in to prepare for my flight, they would figure it out, but of course they won’t even put those two things together. However, I can use that scan if I can remember where I put it and what it’s called. Stupid, stupid, stupid.
The mallard couple have been swimming around in the pond these days. I haven’t seen any baby ducks yet. Judging by when there were lots of baby ducks at the wildlife refuge years ago, they should already bopping around down there.
A little side note added later: I forgot to mention that yesterday while I was washing the dishes, a little hummingbird sat on the deck railing and watched me. He flew off to sip at the feeder a few times, but he returned to see what I was doing. He had a bright orange breast, not red or purple, so he was clearly a type of hummingbird I hadn’t seen here before. His back feathers also had an orange sheen to them in certain lights. I looked him up and he appears to be an Allen’s hummingbird, the summer territory of which is in California. The winter territory must be somewhere much farther south, because it’s not shown in my bird book of the western U. S. It’s no wonder I’ve never seen one before. Then this morning when I was driving to art class, I heard an interview with Amy Tan about her new book, which is a journal about watching birds in her backyard. She told a story about a hummingbird that would actually feed off a feeder in her hand. I liked to think that maybe her little friend took a big detour up here to visit me.
livinginwashington 