A Fisher out of Water

Well-laid plans rarely turn out the way you envision them, and tonight was no exception. Our friends had to cancel coming with us, and I had an impossible time trying to find a babysitter. I called some girls in our ward, and they told me there was a stake-wide YM/YW Temple Trip that evening. Well, there goes the entire babysitting demographic. When I called the people I already know (and I've lived here just over a month-- there aren't too many in this category), everyone (EVERYONE) was either out of town or had family plans. Not surprising, just disappointing.

But Kevin and I decided that, despite the dismal odds of Penny lasting through a concert starting at her bedtime, we'd just take the girl. We dressed her up really cute. This way, if she was screaming, fewer people would sneer and think she was a nasty child.

The concert started at 8, but the free tickets were available starting at 6:00. We arrived at 5:50, after a couple thousand other Handel enthusiasts. The line snaked back and forth through the Hall of Nations a couple times, outside, around the corner, down one end of the Kennedy Center, and back again. As we chatted with the people in line with us, we found that we weren't the only ones who had planned to stop by, pick up a ticket, and then go grab a bite to eat before the concert started. Ha ha ha!!! After an hour in line, that sure wasn't going to happen. But there's a friendly camaraderie between folks hugging their Messiah scores to themselves in an effort to stay warm in a line reminiscent of Disneyland but without anything interesting to look at while you wait.

We eventually did get to the concert. And despite the fact we had to leave at intermission so no one would see our baby turn into a pumpkin, I am VERY glad we brought our little girl!

We got amazing seats 2 tiers above the right side of the stage, and when the music began, Penny threw her arms into the air and waved them around while staring up into the lights. She sang along with all the songs-- especially the tenor solo at the beginning. When anyone clapped, Penny stood up, beamed, and clapped enthusiastically. She danced and swayed, the whole time taking in the spectacle with her wide brown eyes.

The witching hour did finally arrive, and she did squawk and cry a little bit. No one seemed to mind, though, and I don't think it was just because I had dressed her cute.

From everything Kevin tells me, this is nothing like the China Desk where he works. Apparently there are computers and cubicles just like any other office. But I prefer my mental image.

Eventually, Kevin is going to get some Chinese training, bringing his passable score up to a pretty awesome score. And as the wife of a Foreign Service Officer, I have the opportunity to get some language training myself, provided there is room in one of the classes.

Part of me would LOVE to take advantage of this. I studied Chinese in college, and the reason I chose it as my major is because I loved studying it! It's one of those languages where you throw out everything you know about English and start learning from scratch. It's sometimes like a puzzle or a secret code, and as you get more and more of the pieces and turn them the right way, the picture just falls into place. It takes time for me to understand the phrase, how it fits into the sentence, and then how the sentence takes on meaning as part of the whole paragraph or article. I gain a whole new level of understanding just by spending this much time pondering the meaning of words. Let me tell you, it's been a long time since I've read so carefully in English.

So, long story short, I would love to take another Chinese class. And after finishing my Master's on Monday (just had to work that into the conversation here), my brain is suddenly free and open, ready to receive new information and tackle new challenges.

But I think I've decided not to take any classes... for now.

See, while I did my student teaching, I left Penny with Kevin and my mom during the day for about 7 hours. She had a great time with them, and they with her. When I got home in the afternoon, though, she'd see me and cry, having realized she had missed me all day. Then whenever I was around her (afternoons, evenings, weekends) she would get a little frantic when I'd leave the room she was in. Part of this was just the age she was, but another large part is that she loves her mommy. I'd decided from the beginning that I want to be home with my kids while they're growing up, and going to a language training class would mean sloughing her off on a babysitter or a childcare center, and I don't really want to do that.

The biggest reason, though, is that I just love being Penny's buddy during the day. Don't get me wrong-- I sometimes get to the point where I want to be by myself-- or anywhere but with Penny (i.e., last Saturday), but then there are times when I'm sitting by her playing with toys, and she climbs over onto my lap to play. She loves her mom, and I want to be there with her.

I love studying Chinese, but what it comes down to is this:versus this:
Who could say no to those little brown eyes?

And I'm reading an article in Chinese every day or so to keep up my skills, and when we get to China, maybe we can have a tutor come over and teach me! I'm not giving up on the opportunity to learn Chinese. I'm just passing on this one class.

Crust:

1 packet yeast

1 Tbsp brown sugar

1 1/2 c. warm water

1 tsp salt

2 Tbsp olive oil

3 1/3 c. flour

That crust makes two pizzas, medium-sized I guess.

Then for toppings:

BBQ Sauce (I used Kraft Original. Not too sweet or spicy, just a good BBQ sauce)

chopped cilantro

4 green onions (chopped of course. I'm not sure how it would be otherwise...)

1 green pepper, sliced

chicken pieces (I use the leftovers from a Costco roasted chicken)

Mozzarella cheese

Bake 15-20 minutes at 425.

I'm writing this on my blog for two reasons: 1) so you can all make it and then tell me how wonderful it is (and by association, how wonderful I am), and 2) so I can remember the recipe.

It was a really fun party, getting to meet and chat with several of Kevin's classmates. The last time I saw most of them was at Flag Day, where everyone was a little giddy, dumb-struck, or otherwise not their usual selves after hearing where they'd be going for the next two years. But last night, it had all soaked in, and everyone had something fascinating to talk about.

I was excited to go, partially of course to schmooze and eat free food, but mostly to chat with Kevin's classmates and their spouses. I've heard this rumor that I'm not the only one in the class-- or in our apartment complex for that matter-- who stays at home with a small child and could use some socializing. So I was really looking forward to chatting with some of said spouses.

Apparently, though, all those spouses had gotten the memo that the party was going to be a little more like this:
And a little less like this:
Ah yes, I missed that memo.

Penny may or may not have been the youngest person in the room by about 25 years. But she had great social skills, considering. As long as either Kevin or I was holding her, she was quiet and good and enjoyed the general spectacle.

The reception was put on by a group of (mostly) retired diplomats. It was really cool to talk to some of them and hear their experiences, the highlights of decades of American-foreign relations, and also get some thoughts and advice as we start on the same trek.

Penny made some friends. We talked to one of Kevin's classmates, a woman going to Poland for the next couple years. She is very cool and gave me the idea of tracking the weather in my upcoming post. I did so, and today's temperature ranges from 6 to 16 and then back to 12. That has to be Celsius, doesn't it?!

Penny socialized by grabbing some olives from this woman's plates. Then putting them back. Penny's mouth was already full of about 10 already-chewed olives, and she realized she couldn't fit any more in. Apparently at that same moment, Penny also realized that she had no plans for actually eating those olives. She opened her mouth and began spitting out the black goo. As cute as this is when your own child does this (?), if I were standing there watching someone else's child do this, I would have stepped back and let the floor do its job. But Kevin's amazingly cool and personable classmate reached out and let Penny spit onto her hand. And also her plate. And she also got us some napkins so Penny could finish spitting out every last bit of those chewed olives.

Now, in my defense, I would almost always, in every situation, be the one to reach out and catch my baby's disgusting projectiles. But I was holding a baby on one arm and a small hors d'oeuvres plate in the other. And in hindsight, it would have been best to have Penny spit onto my plate. But I'd just gotten my food, and those curry chicken kabobs were to die for!

So maybe that's just one of the reasons that many people know not to invite children to events like this.

I did get to talk to a classmate of Kevin's whose wife lives in our apartment, has a baby Penny's age, and has another one coming next summer. We should become friends. In talking to him, I found out the mystery of today's power outage, and it didn't have much to do with the storm. As I mentioned, the power flickered once, and then a minute later it flickered and stayed off. My future friend lives on the 1st floor, and outside her window, she saw a fireball shoot 10 feet into the air. Cue flicker. Then another one shot into the air, and the power was off for good. Apparently there was an underground gas leak or something that exploded and shot the manhole flying into the air and caused a power outage.

We did eventually regain power. At 5:30 this morning.

Yesterday as Penny and I were getting ready for the day, the power in our building flickered. When it came back on, I thought, "Phew! That would be rough to be without power in this building!" And then 10 seconds later, the power went out. And stayed off.

It had been rainy and windy all morning, and I assumed it was something to do with the storm.

I'm happy it happened when it did. Penny and I had already watched Tuesday's episode of Glee, and had the power been out 5 minutes earlier, I would have still been rinsing soap off a slippery, squirmy toddler. As it was, I just didn't have the chance to dry my hair, which is not the worst thing in the world.

The bathroom lights don't work with the power out. Neither does anything in the kitchen, the laundry room, or the furnace room. As I was trying to find things to do, I kept wanting to do my online class. But obviously that wouldn't work either! We ended up just playing with toys and taking a really long nap.

Our housekeeper still came, even though the vacuum didn't work and she had to clean the bathrooms in the dark. If it were up to me, I would have given her the day off, but our complex didn't feel the same way I did. I am grateful and spoiled to have someone come help me clean house every week. I'm sure that, compared with the apartments of single people who work all day and then come home to a microwaved Lean Cuisine. See, we thoroughly USE our house. I bake stuff and otherwise use almost every single dish, and I use our bathroom washcloths to clean Penny after meals. They get a little bit food-covered and gross. This is, again, probably not the case in many neighboring apartments. So I always work really hard to clean up the apartment before our housekeeper comes. She has her jobs to do, but they don't include cleaning UP after us. I'm very grateful that she comes.

Yesterday afternoon, I met with a friend from church. It just so happened that she came while the elevators were out of service. So instead of meeting her in the lobby and hiking up 8 flights of stairs, we just packed a baby bag and met in the activities room. Penny's favorite activity in the activity room is leaving and closing the doors behind her. I just let her come in and out, but at one point, someone in the lobby started hollering about "a baby here with no mom around." Hmmm... that was mine! After that, we closed the doors with Penny INSIDE. Novel concept.