A triumph, a scuffle, a fright and a bit with a dog…

Bye Bye Birdie was a tremendous success tonight. The kids were so proud. The performance was adorable, the audience appreciative. Rosie got through her jitters and soared. Mae felt the theater zing today. Harry played the audience with eye-twinkling sassiness. Conrad got the crowd all stirred up and Albert charmed. Kim had fun, and finally was a pretty girl, mama. The ensemble sounded fabulous and the kids were all smiles. I was so proud of all of them, and tickled to have made a bright pink hat where there never was a hat. That was the triumph.

Our camp theme song is “We Can Be Kind,” cliché ridden treacle, but still moving to me. Abby had a solo in it, and she was terrified. She did a great job, but after she sang and was supposed to go back to her place on stage, she got into line accidentally instead. And so Amelia took it upon herself to push her into the right place. So Abby stepped back, so Amelia pushed harder, and Abby pushed back…in front of the entire audience. All the while singing “We can be kind…we can take care of each other…” And while I was very stern with Amelia for pushing her sister and not minding her own business, I so hope they captured that on videotape. That was the scuffle.

At the end of the night, just as we were beginning to wrap up and debrief, one of our parents couldn’t find her daughter. We all began to freak out, and called everyone we could think of. She surmised that she’d gone home with the grandmother of a friend, which she had in the end, but the grandmother had dropped the child off at a darkened house and not stopped to make sure she got in. She was alone at a dark house, age 6, and locked out in the rain. Um…next time be sure your kid knows the plan.

And a lady tried to get into the show with her dog. It was okay, though, because she’d bought a ticket for him after all. Yeah. The dog had to go into the car. It was okay, though, ‘cause we gave her the money back.

What happened from Monday to now is kind of amazing to me. How does it all happen? I don’t know. It’s a mystery.

Ha. Tomorrow is my high school reunion. Haaaahah. I have more to say about that but I don’t know when I’ll get a chance to say it.