The Wax Museum

As the school winds down and Maura prepares to third grade her school work focuses on big projects and fun. Tomorrow she has her big fieldtrip for the year, a trip to Plimouth Plantation where she will learn about the Pilgrims and their Wampanoag neighbors. I expect she’ll have a good time, too. There was no call for parents to chaperone this year, so I won’t be going.

Yesterday was another of Maura’s end of school year activities. For their big end-of -ear project the students in the third grade did book reports on biographies and presented their reports on posters which were displayed in the gym. Then they dressed up as their historical subjects and answered questions that they had prepared in advance.

Maura chose Pocahontas as her subject. Her poster told the familiar story of how she saved the life of John Smith, helping the first English settlement at Jamestown to survive. It also told how she later married another Englishman, John Rolfe, and traveled with him to England where she died, leaving behind a young son.

Parents were invited to come see the wax museum, which was the name the school gives to the display of posters with their costumed presenters. I went to see Maura in the Pocahontas costume that her mother made for her. She looked very cute in it. She did an excellent job answering the three questions she had prepared and written on her poster. She also answered  a few other questions people asked about Pocahontas’s life, showing that she had learned about her subject, not just memorized a few facts. She even managed to answer some of them in character. I was very impressed with her presentation and I’m proud of her.

Dinner and a Race

Last Thursday I took Maura into Boston to watch her mother run in the JP Morgan Chase Corporate Challenge, her first road race ever. Before the race I took Maura to dinner using some money I had been given for my birthday.

As usual when we head into Boston we took the T from Quincy Adams station. We parked on level 2B in the garage. Someone always asks the question on the way home—2B or not 2B? It’s part of our ritual when we travel by T.

Maura and I left the subway at Copley Square and looked around for a restaurant. My first choice had closed since the last time I had been by so we went with my second choice, Fire and Ice, one of Maura’s favorites.  Fire and Ice features a buffet of raw ingredients that are cooked to order for you on a large grill. They always have a good selection of things to choose from, including meat and seafood, accompanied by a variety of sauces. The precise mix of ingredients on the buffet changes every day so the food is never the same from one visit to another. They almost always have shrimp though, which makes Maura happy.

To accompany our meal Maura and I had Lava Flows from the bar. A Lava Flow is a mixture of strawberry daiquiri and pina colada. Maura, of course, had the non-alcoholic version. I would have been happy with a touch more rum in mine.

After dinner we walked down to the starting line for the race, on Charles Street, by the Public Garden. We watched the start hoping to see Jennifer but could not pick her out of the crowd of 12,000. Once the last racer passed us we headed across the Public Garden to a spot near the finish line. We got to our new spot in time to see the leaders go by. We clapped for the first few hundred finishers, until they started coming in too close together to clap for each one. We did manage to spot Jennifer as she went by near the finish because the pack was not as thick as it was near the start.

Jennifer did fairly well for her first ever race and we’re proud of her. She finished around 7000^th (out of 12,000). Her time for the 3½ mile race was approximately 39 minutes.

After we’d seen her pass we went to our rendezvous point and met Jennifer to head home. She collected her stuff and we headed home. Because the race hadn’t started until 7:00 pm, the earliest that the City of Boston would close the streets for the course, it was a late night for Maura but it was fun for us and a big achievement for Jennifer.

Maura in Vermont: Camping, Morris Dancers, Art and Cheese

Over Memorial Day weekend Maura, Jennifer and I went camping in Vermont. We stayed at Fort Dummer State Park, just outside of Brattleboro. The trip was strain on our family budget but worth it. Everyone had a wonderful time. It certainly helped that the weather was near perfect, with only a few drops of rain, plenty of sunshine and none of the storms that the forecast had suggested were possible. We loaded up the car and headed for Vermont first thing on Saturday morning. We arrived well before check-in time but our campsite was ready so were able to unload, set up camp and head out to enjoy Brattleboro and its environs. We walked around Downtown Brattleboro for a while, window shopping and exploring art galleries and visited the local yarn shop (Jennifer knits).

After a break for a picnic lunch we headed out of town for the afternoon. We headed north on Route 5 through Putney and Bellows Falls and looped back through Grafton down to Route 30 which we followed back to Brattleboro. Mostly we drove and enjoyed the scenery but we made a few stops along the way. In Putney we stopped at Basketville, a large basket shop selling baskets from all over the world and displaying basket animals in the rafters. The shark was particularly impressive. It is about life size. In the same building was the Putney Mountain Winery. Jennifer and I tasted some of their wines and Maura got to taste their non-alcoholic cider. All the wines were made from local fruit and there was an interesting variety. Our favorite was the Apple-Maple wine. We purchased a bottle to enjoy later. A little further down the road we stopped at Harlow’s Sugar House to pick up some locally produced maple syrup. We bought grade B, with a stronger maple flavor and darker color than the grade A dark amber we buy in the grocery store. It doesn’t make sense to bring syrup from home to Vermont. In Grafton we stopped at the Grafton Cheese Company shop. We sampled cheese and decided we would purchase some later at their Brattleboro location before we left Vermont on Monday so we wouldn’t have to worry about keeping it refrigerated in camp.

Back in Brattleboro we watched the morris dancers perform at the annual Marlboro Morris Ale. Morris dance teams were in Brattleboro from the local region and from as far away as Vancouver, Canada. The Morris dance is an English folk dance often danced at festivals in the spring. It involves complex figures and athletic moves. The dances are accompanied by live music and the teams include musicians. The dancing was fun to watch and to listen to. Jennifer and Maura enjoyed it so much that we’re already talking about going back to see it again next year.

On our second day we started with a hike. It turned into the low point of our trip. We hiked on the Retreat Farm trails on the outskirts of Brattleboro. The trails were nice but the clouds of mosquitoes were so thick that they drove us out of the woods, despite the heavy application of insect repellent. We retreated to camp to rest from our ordeal, and then went out again after lunch.

In the afternoon we visited the Brattleboro Museum and Art Center where we enjoyed their current exhibitions of contemporary art. After that we drove the Molly Stark Trail, Vermont route 9, through the Green Mountains to Wilmington, where we did some more window shopping. Along the way we stopped at the scenic overlook on Hogback Mountain to enjoy the view looking out on three states. Then it was back to camp for a bonfire, dinner cooked in foil in the coals and s’mores, which we have to make sometime on every camping trip. In the morning we broke camp, packed up and headed home, stopping before we left Vermont to buy cheese at the Grafton Cheese Company in Brattleboro as we had planned.

Writers Without Borders

Last week I had two major accomplishments. The first was to successfully apply for unemployment benefits. That was an exercise in patience. I called the Massachusetts Department of Unemployment Assistance phone number and then waited on hold for what seemed like hours before an agent could take my call and process my claim. Once I got off hold things were much easier. The woman who interviewed me was polite and efficient and seemed genuinely helpful and friendly. To tell the truth, I expected nothing different. My experience with employees of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, at least the ones I’ve dealt with on the phone, is that they are usually very helpful, if somewhat hard to reach. I’m sure it doesn’t hurt that I try to be pleasant in return.

My other accomplishment was to start a writers’ group. I’ve felt for some time that I need a support group of other writers willing to give my work a critical yet sympathetic eye in return for my own considered opinion, when asked for, of their own efforts. Now that I’m seriously considering writing for a living I’m also interested in sharing leads on work and tips on the business side of writing. In the end it doesn’t matter how good you are if nobody reads you or at least pays you.

The meeting went very well for an organizational meeting. We met around a booth in the seating area of my local Whole Foods Market to discuss our aims and goals. I came prepared with agendas and some speeches since I didn’t know who might show up. I also brought my sidekick, Maura. She says she wants to be a writer someday and it won’t hurt her to get some ideas about what writers do (besides write of course). Four of my writing friends showed up. Two were colleagues from Borders; two were old friends from other places. Everyone had known Maura since she was very small and no one minded when she put her two cents in, which she did very intelligently. We all reminded her to wipe the chocolate smears of her face from the chocolate gelato I bought her as a treat.

We’ll be meeting again in another week. I’m looking forward to it. I won’t be bringing Maura to the next meeting, which will be in the evening, but I will bring her to future meetings. She wants to share her work. When I do bring her to another meeting and she does share her work I expect her to listen to the critiques she gets. Maybe I’ll ask her to write a post for this blog and have that critiqued by the group. I’d love to see her write a Travels with Daddy post someday.

2011 Boston Kidney Walk

Last Sunday Maura, Jennifer and I walked in the 2011 Boston Kidney Walk at the Franklin Park Zoo. We, or more accurately Team Captain Jennifer, raised $400 for the National Kidney Foundation and we had a very enjoyable visit to the zoo. Thank you to everyone who sponsored us in the walk.

Sunday was a gray, misty day and threatened rain but it held off actually raining until we had finished the three mile walk around the zoo and were returning to our car. On the way we had a nice easy stroll and a fun visit to the zoo. Maura at age eight still gets excited by watching animals and her young-at-heart parents do too. It was a chilly day but warm enough for the animals to be outside, except for the giraffes and the gorillas. The highlights of this visit were the peacocks, the budgies at the Aussie Aviary and the ring tailed lemurs in the Rainforest Pavilion. The peacocks were running loose throughout the zoo and were displaying their gorgeous iridescent tails, though there didn’t seem to be any peahens around to impress. At the Aussie Aviary we purchased a seed stick to feed the budgies and they flew down and perched on Maura’s hands while she fed them. The troop of lemurs has two new additions born at the end of March. The baby lemurs were really cute scrambling on their mother’s back and holding on as she jumped through the branches in their habitat.

More important than having a good time, we did our part to help the National Kidney Foundation help people suffering from kidney disease.  According to the National Kidney Foundation one in nine American adults suffers from chronic kidney disease, though many don’t know it. Many of the sufferers will eventually face kidney failure and a kidney transplant or life on dialysis. Among those with kidney disease are my mother, who has had a kidney transplant, and me, who may someday need one. We walked in honor of my mother, and of my father, who donated her transplanted kidney. I ask that you consider supporting the National Kidney Foundation, perhaps by sponsoring a walker or joining a team in your local Kidney Walk. Chances are you know someone, a family member or a friend perhaps, who also suffers from kidney disease and will thank you personally for your efforts. You have my thanks already.

Maura’s Ice Show Debut

Saturday night was the ice show that Maura had spent the previous week working hard to prepare for. She was excited all day and could hardly wait to perform. I think the only reason she was able to sleep Friday night was that she had worked very hard at the dress rehearsal and she was tired. On the night of the show she was nervous, but ready.

The Rockland Rink Ice Show was titled “Holiday Memories” and had a holiday theme. Maura was in two numbers with other girls of approximately her size and skill. “If You Are Irish” was a St. Patrick’s Day number and the girls wore sparkly green costumes. “Shake a Tail” didn’t have a holiday theme but it was a fun, sassy song that Maura really enjoyed performing to. Maura did a great job in both of her numbers, especially since it was the first time she’d skated with a group or for an audience. Maura wasn’t the best skater in the group but she did what she was supposed to do with a smile on her face. I was particularly impressed with her part in a pinwheel. She had one of the outer ends of a rotating line of skaters so she had to skate the fastest. She’d never done anything like that before she learned the routine for the show only a week before.

Jennifer and I went to the show mostly to see Maura but we didn’t leave when her part was over. It was fun watching the other numbers, too. The little kids were really cute. The more experienced synchronized skating teams and some of the solo performers were very impressive. If Maura stays interested in skating and keeps working hard at it she might have a solo in a show someday. I expect to see her skate in a few more ice shows. She certainly enjoyed her part in this one.

Maura on Ice

Maura has been taking figure skating lessons for a year and a half now. She has enjoyed being on the ice from the start and has made enormous progress. By now she’s learned all the basic moves and has started to learn how to put them together. Her enthusiasm has never flagged and she gets excited every time there is any prospect of ice time. At the same time she is very serious. When she is practicing a move and fails to do it to her satisfaction she shakes her head and does it again until she feels she’s gotten it right. I am very proud.

Recently Maura has expressed interest in going beyond taking group lessons. Jennifer and I asked her if she wants to compete and she is eager to give it a try. With financial assistance from her grandparents (she’s their only grandchild after all) we’re getting her private coaching starting this summer and her coach will be working out a routine for her to perform in competition in the fall. I don’t know how she’ll do but if she does not do well it won’t be from lack of effort. Maura concentrates well for an eight year old especially when she’s focusing on something she really loves.

Competition won’t start for Maura until October but she’s got a big ice skating event this Saturday. The rink where Maura takes her lessons has an ice show every spring and Maura is participating in it for the first time. In addition to her Monday afternoon lesson she has rehearsals this week. Her Mother and I are looking forward to seeing her perform. Some of our friends are planning to come and see her too. Maybe I’ll make a sign to hold up wishing her well. Then again, maybe I won’t. I don’t want to distract her or embarrass her.

In any case, when I see Maura skating I know the hours I’ve spent shivering at the rink have been worth it. I’m very glad she’s found something to be passionate about and I hope she keeps it up, whether she does well in competition or not.