I had another of those mornings where I had to force myself out of bed. Never fun. I have this horrible groggy feeling until I get in the shower. The steam wakes me up, I think. And there was a spider on my bathroom rug, so I had to squish it (with those stupid blister-causing brown shoes) before I could get on with things.
Despite the bad start, my day was actually pretty good. Work was fine. More store-building and newspapers. She'll be out tomorrow, so I have the day off. Whoo-hoo, guess who's sleeping in? She told me today that she likes having me around. You know, just so she's not alone in the house, and I sort the newspapers and play piano and help her with online stuff. I felt very... complimented.
I noticed half a dozen pairs of shoes drying on the porch when I came home. That clued me in that my family had come back from their vacation. I walked in the door and saw Ryan downstairs at the table. He immediately said, "Hey, Lindsay! We got hermit crabs!" Not even, "We're back!" His hermit crab is bigger than Courtney's. That puts them at 1.5 pets each. Everyone seems much tanner and happy now. They got one of those old-West style portraits done at Busch Gardens. It's neat, but it seems so weird because they're all in it. It's like a family portrait. Without me.
My parents haven't questioned my icky bug bites. And they gave me permission to go see
How to Deal with Greg tomorrow night. He's going on vacation next week, and I'll be off at my leadership workshop the first week in August, so we probably won't get to see each other until I get back. But he promised to take me to that movie. I love Mandy Moore. She sings, she acts, she's nice; Britney who?
I went back for my piano lesson at 6:30. It was the first time Mr. Maus was around in a long time. I've been playing on her every day I go there, only for about ten minutes. That short amount of time is actually making me better. My touch has always been off because I only have a keyboard to practice on, but my teachers have always told me I adjust well to playing on a real piano. I know my songs by now; it's mostly just polishing and memorizing them that keeps me practicing. So I played for the Mauses tonight, and received many compliments. I could
feel that I was playing better than I usually do. I had more dynamic control, my fingers slipped less, my pedaling was timed right. I mean, I've been playing for six and a half years. That's a lot of time to build skills. But they never really show like they did tonight. Oh, and I got paid (for working, not for playing).
I walked to the end of the driveway with Mrs. Maus (she had to get the mail). She commented, "Gosh, it's a beautiful night, isn't it?" It is. (Or... was.) And then, quite randomly, I started half-singing, half-humming "Bella Notte" from
The Lady and the Tramp. I have
no idea where that came from. I think I made up the tune as I went along. But it fit, so I guess it wasn't as random as it could have been. Random is the song that popped into my head while I was clipping newspapers the other day, the one about soup from
Alice in Wonderland (the modern version with Whoopi Goldberg and Christopher Lloyd.) Random is also the present they brought back from VA for me: one of those necklaces with your name written on a grain of sand. It's actually kind of cool. The necklace itself is the adjustable kind, so I may not wear it often (adjusting is so tedious), but it's pretty. And thoughtful.
Many thanks to any and all of you who sent in votes for the short story contest. I really appreciate it. It makes me feel good to know that people enjoy my writing. Also, I have updated the guestbook to match the blog (again). (Anyone know how to get the annoying SMG ad off my guestbook, or how to put it in a less awkward place?)
