que j'oi ces oisiaus chanter,
Monday, October 23, 2006
Collette returned from the cardiologist Monday morning to tutor Rose, to find Linnea dressed in a gangster costume put together by Carrie-Bri. Linnea had formerly decided to be a spider for Halloween, but Carrie decided that the contraption of chicken wire, socks, and wrapping paper tubes that she had constructed would be too heavy for Linnea’s stout little frame. And so it became yet another cat habit sitting like a big rock on top of Rose’s bunk bed.
As the day continued, Collette and Rose looked over Rose’s sentence outline for her research paper. And the phone rang off the hook. Whether it was Grandma Snicketts calling to tell Mom about an extra seasoning Mom could add to the vegetable soup that Grandma had sent home with Dad, Grandma Combs calling for Joe about a candy-red Monte Carlo that Uncle Mo had just purchased, Elizabeth ringing half a dozen times for Carrie, the travel agent confirming the flight to Egypt, and many others… it brought an added busyness to the day.
But Rose happily returned in the afternoon with a sentence outline that had been marked very well by the head of the English department. And she also returned to find that her beautiful bone and wood mah-jong set had just arrived from Japan.
Meanwhile, Rose eventually signed herself up for Spanish and Ceramics II classes for the spring at the community college. Collette warned Rose that she would prefer French in the end, but Rose had a personal vendetta against the French. Although Collette could not quite understand how on earth, Rose had been personally offended by the language.
Besides all that, Collette wasn’t quite sure that she wanted to hear Rose spout off Spanish during the day in her Rose-ish way. French would have been a more elegant sound to attempt, at least. But, say la vie.
There were fish and OLeif-made green beans for dinner that night while OLeif scrubbed up the shower with his new cleaning supplies. Just like Joe. For some reason, the boys liked to clean.
And Joe returned from his first official day of work at the Green Lantern wearing his snazzy new shirt, excited about all the car interiors he had cleaned out.
Meanwhile, Carrie-Bri and Rose had it in the bag for Egypt. Their price had risen a bit as a result of the hotel needed in Germany on the return trip. And they still had to decide whether they would join the tour on the rigorous all-day trip to Abu Simbel. But everything else seemed to be falling into place.
Earlier in the afternoon while Rose was at class, Carrie-Bri cut off a good amount of Collette’s hair, leaving Collette’s locks hanging just at her shoulder. Her hair hadn’t even been quite that short a year and a half before when OLeif cut it for her right after the Moss family returned to Australia. Collette added the braided tail to her small collection of hair tails.
Carrie had reminded them only the other day of Bing’s hair collection. For years and years he had been saving his bits of red hair, stashing them – Collette wasn’t quite sure anyone knew just where.
“He was always saving his hair to make a pillow,” Carrie said.
He must have had enough for a sizeably plump pillow, seeing as he was now twenty.
In other news, Rose had almost decided that she would enjoy auditioning for the part of queen at the madrigal dinner that year. But until that time came, her thoughts were focused on Egypt, research papers, CLEP exams, and making ceramic things. She brought home another prize that very day from her ceramics lab – a cereal bowl. She ate Cheerios in it before the afternoon was out.