April 15th
Four o'clock hour... dead quiet in the night... dog starts bark-howling like some kind of canine banshee... Oxbear hustles down there... nothing... “Probably saw a mouse... looked pleased with herself for alerting us”...
While Yali and Patience spend their day at Yellow Bird learning poetry and making crafts... I knock out another lightning ninety minutes at the old school hot-gluing everything (including my fingers) for about 50 upper elementary kids as problems are solved and creativity explodes... but there are never never never enough pom-poms...
Zoom back home to determine and gather a load of paperwork for Puck to apply for a Real ID with his license renewal, because apparently an 18 year-old hasn't been alive long enough to rack up the kind of documents one needs to be determined “real” unless parental back-up authorization accompanies with additional documents...
But the timing is the worst... everyone deciding to get their Real IDs at the same time before the deadline creates hours-long lines for folks born in April... “It'll be about two hours” the lady at the door informs us... Puck – who already isn't thrilled about spending a chunk of his paid week off sitting in a squeaky plastic chair pushed between packs of coughing fellow citizens – just stares at me... “No”... home we go...
And while Puck returns to another workout in the basement before lunch...
...I swipe those returned two hours to get some real stuff done at home... with a Pepsi for back-up... also order 900 pom-poms off Amazon for the 6th graders...
It's already about three o'clock... kids tumble out of Yellow Bird loaded down with cupcakes, ring pops, and Fun Dip for the holiday...
At home Yali sets up chairs in the living room as a mock classroom for Patience as she practices giving the Spanish lesson for the tots tomorrow... she's leading Pre-K and preschool in the morning since the Spanish teacher is still in Puerto Rico... Yali plays as one of the students, placing the Stormtrooper on the chair next to him to act as a student named “Ezra” who is apparently busy causing some trouble... “Do you want me to send you upstairs to the principal?” Patience teases as she prepares the opening song...
A little Chinese culture class before dinner... exploring the Terracotta Army and its tomb which remains unopened... rumored to contain a “river of mercury” inside its walls...
Shortly later Puck walks out to scoop goodies from the kids' haul that afternoon... “What am I going to do about your birthday picture?” I ask him... staring at the top of his head... // “What” // “Your scalp... it's so... sha-wing!” // “I'll rub a little oil on it to make it shine even more” he grins
Before leaving for the studio... Yali and Patience come in from the trampoline where Patience has rolled herself up in a patchwork picnic blanket against the cold while Yali imagines stories... to a simple dinner of sausage and potatoes, bread with butter, and a Southwest-style salad... Yali walks in to peruse the grazing options with wide eyes of gratitude... “This is like a Medieval dinner!”