Recital Recap

Yesterday was day 1 of the 2 day recital for KC and Lissa.  It has been a busy week, with dress rehearsal on Thursday night, and costume adjustments, leading up to the big performance weekend.  Happily, both kids are very excited. They are seasoned performers now, enjoying the dancing, the fooling around with their chums back at the cafeteria, the glitz, etc.

Lissa totally has found her wheel house in hip hop.  She is one of the younger kids in the class but was totally on the beat all the time.  KC was great but he has had a couple years of classes and this was Lissa's first. I was just amazed at the transformation in her from last year, to this.  She did well in her ballet number too, but I think this is largely because they were clowns and she could also do handstands and cartwheels. Hip hop appeals to her inner sense of movement and her physicality in ways that other dance styles don't.

KC rocked all three of his numbers.  He is a natural and I have people stop me and say that they are drawn to watching him because his delight in what he is doing shines on the stage.   For him, my greatest joy is that he is no longer be-set by nerves before performances.  This is huge for the guy who used to literally shake with fear till the music started.

For the first day of recital I worked backstage as it helps the kids get used to the costume changes.  I have a lot of friends and helped their kids too, knowing that they would reciprocate today when it was my turn to sit and watch the performance.

Today Fiona came to watch and was really excited to be part of the family entourage cheering the littles on.  The god parents came and also, my SIL, beloved Aunt Lynne.  It would have all gone really swimmingly if the home had sent Fiona's noon med instead of an empty sealed envelope.  Sigh.  I had left early because I had to get KC and Lissa backstage an hour before the performance.  I had signed for the meds when Fi arrived but who would think one of the envelopes would be empty??  My wife called the house right away at noon when their error was discovered, but it was not resolved quickly or efficiently.

For Fiona's sake this is an issue.  The med was an anxiety medication.  There is an hour window for such meds, before they are "late" and may cause behavioral or physical symptoms.  So basically if we got the med by 1 p.m. we were golden.

Selfishly, this impacted me at another level as I could not sit in the nearly front row seat that I had purchased and watch my kids.  I had to make repeated calls to the house staff trying to get them to bring the pill and it would be grossly unfair to impact others experience by sitting there yakking.  So I left the hall to take the call and was told that someone would be there in 30 minutes.  I gave our address and precise location no less than three times.  They still went to the wrong city and the wrong school.  I got to glimpse the hip hop number from the back of the hall and the same for KC's tap number.  I am grateful I could see it but I sure would have enjoyed being in my seat.

****Clearly I started this post long ago.  Life has been crazy busy as we are now getting ready for our first campout of the season. There has been fallout over this, the second medication issue for Fiona.  It worries me that this group seem to be so  unorganized about a facet of her life that has to be fairly rigidly controlled.  Supposedly a pharmacy will now prepare her meds and I have to consequently schedule her home visits very far  in advance.