Archive for June 24th, 2008

When I taught flute lessons I had good parents, great parents, and “Oh-for-the-love-of GOD!” parents. The “O-f-t-l-o-G!” parents drove me batshit crazy when they couldn’t keep their schedules straight. These were the kids who were late, got the dates mixed up, or just flat-out forgot to come.

I’m afraid I have become one of those parents.

J has started violin lessons (no, I haven’t blogged about yet, I’m trying to get an “awwwww….” picture first) a couple of weeks ago. He’d been asking for them for 6 months, so even though he’s still two weeks shy of his fourth birthday, he’s taking lessons. His whole body lights up when he gets his violin out of the case.

But I digress.

When we signed up for lessons, I knew there would be 2 Thursdays where he’d be in preschool music camp. And, of course, his lessons were scheduled right over camp. Through a couple of snafus between me, the music school, and the teacher, I totally spaced mentioning it to the teacher until last Wednesday. The day before his second lesson. We couldn’t get that one rescheduled.

And that brings us to today.

Do you think I’ll remember to call the teacher today to reschedule Thursday’s lesson?

Hmm…A was up puking all night (again) and we’re off to the doctor later. I’m a wee bit sleep deprived. I’m taking an adrenal test for my acupuncturist, so I can’t have any caffeine today. And I have many a thing to do today.

I’ll put the odds at YES, I’M GOING TO FORGET to YES I’M GOING TO FORGET.

I’m sensing a theme in my recent reading. I recently read Eat, Pray, Love, about a woman who leaves her life behind for a year to travel and find herself. Loved the book. And now, I just finished reading Tales of a Female Nomad by Rita Golden Gelman.

I think if I had read this one before Eat, Pray, Love, I would have enjoyed it more. It was a good book, a great summer read, but it didn’t grab me like the other one did.

In Tales, the author’s marriage falls apart, and in trying to make sense of it all, begins to travel the world. A little bit at first, then a bit more, then finally, as her way of life. She eventually becomes a nomad; no permanent address, owns very little, works enough (she’s a childrens’ book author) to allow herself this way of life.

It lost me by going on and on…and then, suddenly ending. There seemed to be no focus to the book; it was just an ongoing tale of “I went here and this happened, then I went here, and then I lived in Bali for 8 years…”

Again, as I said, I enjoyed the book and would recommend to others. But Eat, Pray, Love really spoke to me. Maybe it’s a generational difference. In EPL, the author was closer to my age (mid-thirties) when she did her traveling; in Tales, the author has adult children. Perhaps it’s a decade thing. EPL is a recent book (2007); Tales was written in 2001 after 15 years of traveling.

But, above all, I’m starting to wonder if I should be worried that my recent reading centers around the theme of “divorce your husband and travel the world.”