This afternoon, I spent a couple of hours in the company of Roxanne, the daughter of one of my friends. There was a bit of a child care shortage so she asked if Roxanne could come and hang out with me. Hello, of course! So my favorite seven year old in motorcycle boots and sequins (I really admire her fashion sense) and I headed off to explore the wilds of Beatrix Park.

I know my park pretty well. This was a completely different experience. Following the lead of my very curious young friend, we attempted to find evidence of mussels living in fresh water, found the eggshells of the herons and bravely explored under all kinds of trees and off the path. We also did our environmental duty by fishing shopping bags out of the water and disposing of them properly.

Of course, then we had to have an ice cream before we headed back. Disappointment there for Roxanne because her chocolate ice cream tasted like coffee she said. I sincerely doubt her parents let her have coffee so I think I am going to assume it wasn’t sweet enough 😉

While waiting for her dad to pick her up, we spent some time coloring and drawing a communal picture.

Which means I am still working right now to get everything finished for Monday’s presentation WAY up in the north. I will go by Marum on the way back and talk to Mom. I’ve got quite a bit of stuff to tell her and it is time to put in new plants by her and the greats.

Today is the equivalent of Memorial Day.  It is still heavily oriented towards WWII and the people who lost their lives. It has also branched out a bit to victims of more current wars. Tomorrow is Liberation Day, which is marked by lots of celebrations. There are lots of exhibitions and tours today. In my neighborhood, which was formerly very much the Jewish Quarter, there are many open houses where the Resistance worked from and where people hid. Today and tomorrow, there are different houses open. It is pretty fascinating, especially since there are still people living who can tell their stories.

I had my banjo lesson this morning and afterwards walking home, I had all this emotion clinging to me. Then I realized why, I had walked past several groups of people that were walking in tours about the war. Of course, banjo was a little emotional because we talked about the funeral and such. However, eventually Paul told me that it was time to learn something new. He’s playing this weekend at the European World of Bluegrass (EWOB) with his regular band and then with the main event on Saturday night. I will, of course, be there. A couple of months ago, when I was just a friendly budding musician, I invited GG (before she became GG) to come with me to the festival. We’ve both ended up volunteering there on Saturday and I expect that we’ll do our best not to reorganize their entire process… 😉

Speaking of, I will see her again tomorrow – a day earlier than I expected…Happy Dance.

I am not going to Chicago next month. Due to stuff with work and stuff in Cedric’s life, our schedules do not match. So, now we have to try again. Grrr. Disappointing. I want to see them though so it doesn’t make sense if we can’t all be there at the same time.

Okay, the boys are looking at me like “When’s dinner, lady??” so off I go.