The first day of summer vacation hasn’t felt very much like summer. It never made it out of the 60s. This weather is fine by me, but it is a little disorienting.
We are easing into the summer schedule, such as we have a schedule. Mr. Spy took AJ off to play tennis this morning, giving me some time to work. Afterwards he hosted first The Girl Next Door and then The Boy Across The Street, which gave us both time to work. And then I spent the latter part of the afternoon squiring AJ around, which was great fun.
First we stopped at the Park District for what we thought was the first day of an hour-long flag football program that AJ will be playing with some friends every Tuesday and Thursday for the next couple of months. It turned out to be a fifteen minute introductory meeting, with two high school football players who will be running the program. I think AJ will have a blast, but I also think the coaches will be in for a surprise. I’m pretty sure these kids know a lot more about football than they seem to think. Afterwards, we drove to AJ’s piano lesson, but since the meeting was so short, we had over an hour to kill. We walked the 5 blocks from the senior center, where the piano lessons are being held over the summer, to the small downtown area of our village and bought coffee for me and a popsicle for AJ at the coffee shop and sat down to talk music theory. By the time we turned around to walk back, the sun, which had been hiding all day, had come out. We took a leisurely stroll back, waving at the many people we knew who drove by. When we got back to the senior center, AJ’s friend N2, who lives across the street, had come outside to play and the two of them yelled at each other. We still had a half an hour to fill, so we kept walking up the hill and around the corner to his friend N1’s house. We had run into N1’s sisters with their neighbor outside the football meeting, so we didn’t think he’d be home, but not only was he home, but he was bored out of his mind. The two boys ran around for a half an hour and giggled up a storm while I chatted with N1’s dad. He’s a police detective. He’s not usually around during the day, but he’s on the night shift this week. He’s an interesting guy. He was telling me about his parents, who were both musicians. His dad was a classical pianist and his mom a singer who sang with people like Andy Williams. They met performing. When they got married, he took a job at the Pump Room and his mom stayed home to raise their kids. “Yeah, they were the original hippie musicians,” N1’s dad laughed. He asked about AJ’s piano teacher. He’d like his kids to take lessons. “Chances are one of them has the gene!”
A while later, we headed back down the hill to the senior center. This is the first time we’ve been inside the building, which looks like it used to be either a church or a schoolhouse. We climbed the narrow stairs to the second floor and sat down in the tired plastic chairs on the landing, which was paneled in fake wood. A few minutes later, AJ’s teacher came out to get him and he disappeared inside while I sat and edited for a half hour.
After piano lessons, I drove AJ straight to baseball practice. Mr. Spy was already there. The two of them will stay for a pizza party afterwards and I get two hours in the house all to myself. Hooray!
So, not a bad start.
But what will we do tomorrow?
I know what you can do: you can read the new post at AJ’s Clubhouse. A quick year-end wrap-up and some more testing issues. If you’re not sick to death of that issue yet. I know I am. But it still ain’t over.
Posted by harri3tspy 
