Boathouse Friday

The boathouse is a good place to hang out on Fridays.

It was kind of a girls' night, then Ed showed up which is fine because Ed is great.

There were cherries in the fridge.

Daya and I both have a bad cherry addiction.  She didn't like them until.... last week or so when I got some at Costco. She has always turned them down, but I guess she tried them, and then apologized for eating the rest.

Of course I didn't mind one bit.

Daya has been at work the last three days at 6am on the Upper West Side and we haven't seen much of each other.  Last night I came home to a cute note about shopping she did with the receipts, and a note to please help her stop eating cherries.  I wrote her back that I cannot in good conscience do that because cherries are awesome and we'll add it to the list of food I like that she now likes but didn't a short time ago.  And also I said told you so.

I did a VERY respectable job going through those cherries, but I also saved a good amount for Daya and took them home for her.

Bitz brought her dog and we tried to fit Reign with a life jacket.  She hated it!

I did another kayak painting. I need to practice a bit for the coordination.

The water was wonderful.

I like this sign in the boathouse, it is good advice:

Work Field Trip & Eye Stuff

I went into the office today for the AC and also because I am taking the skills 102 class at the boathouse in the evening.

I can see the embayment from the office.

Kedrin and I are work neighbors, so we met at lunch time to go on a work field trip at the American Indian Museum. (It's free.)

It is an 8 minute walk from the office.

It is a 2 minute walk from Kedrin's office.

I haven't been in here for years.

Mostly we just talked, only got yelled at once, and it was a fun time.

I did the 102 class but it was weirdly COLD so I didn't do my self-rescue.  Which is ok because I know I can do it in three different boats.  I'll do it later when the weather is warmer.

***********

So....... I think my right eye must be all over the place because people aren't talking to me when I speak to them. If they had situational awareness it wouldn't be an issue.  But I can't take being completely ignored and then get "are you talking to me?" It happened three times tonight despite me gesturing and using someone's name.

I'm really triggered, I guess.

I can't take it.

I'm going to have to patch at the boathouse, I think.

Choose your own bullshit.

I'm pretty upset, I have a lot of bad-treatment-history because of my eyes.

It's profoundly impacted my life, not in good ways.  

People are awful and I'm not in a mental space to handle it very well.

I know I look weird and I hate it.

People treat you very differently.

Kedrin found me a spiky eye patch which I'll have to use on the subway right after surgery.

I think when dealing with the public I'll have to patch and write something on the patch.

Graduation!!

Daya graduated from high school today... I can't believe it.

The end of a long road.

There is a lot about it that is sad, but honestly I'm mostly relieved.
I'm sad that I'm so relieved.

This has been a hard road, high school has not been easy.

It is, however, ending well.

I got a visual accommodation seat in the third row, which was great and of course there was a big head literally right in front of me. Theaters are always so difficult for me, between my eyes and being 5 feet tall.  Getting that seat took more effort than it should have; the school repeatedly ignored my requests.  The AP of dance took care of it though.

So I'm sad to leave LaGuardia, I'm glad to leave LaGuardia, I'm sad this is the official end of Daya's childhood, and I'm also really happy about that. It's a real intense mishmash of everything.

Daya performed at graduation and I'll put the video link up when I upload it.

Here are pictures. I was so nervous for her performance... I sat next to Mr Smith who choreographed.... he was telling me the stage was really slippery. Daya did have to change a few things because of it, but it was beautiful.

Daya and Mr Steffa. I first told them to make faces showing how much they love each other.

Then I told them to be fake.

They are buds though, although Daya started tormenting Mr Steffa literally since auditions.

Ms Foote

Daya and Jonah, her performance partner.

We went out for sushi.

I gave Daya an Apple Watch.

Dinner was nice and there were some LaG vocal alums in the restaurant too.

After, we both felt like walking so we walked over the bridge about halfway home.

This was really, really nice- Daya talked to me about stuff and we had a really nice conversation. This might have been the best part of the day.

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Today is a "last" for me too.

Tomorrow I go into surgery prep for right cataract.

It is the last day of my life I will wear a hard contact lens in the right eye.

See how the light hitting my eyes is different? 

When I get my new implant that will be even again too.

Graduation Cap Decorating & Don't Fight the Mom Army

Last night Daya went to a graduation cap decorating party and decided she didn't want to do what everyone else was doing, she wanted me to do it for her.

Of course I said ok, and I'm glad she knew I would totally do it.

Today I spent most of the day painting her cap.
I brought out my acrylics which I haven't used in years but times like these are why I am fully stocked in EVERYTHING.

Graduation caps are a terrible surface to paint on and I still hate acrylic paint! :)

But I did get to use interference colors and gold so that was fun.

This cap doesnt photograph well, there is a lot of gold at the bottom.

Daya will have the best cap at graduation tomorrow!

Some progress shots...

I did use the plein air painting I did of Juilliard for reference, and honestly having done that painting helped tremendously and saved a bunch of time, because I have the visual memory of it.

Her robe and scarf thing were very creased.

Me: May I pls have your robe and scarf to steam.

She: No, it's fine.

Me: It is not fine, it has creases. I have been texting other moms about this all day.

She: I'm just gonna stuff it in my backpack.

Me: Oh no you are not! You will use a garment bag.

She: Mom it's FINE!

Me: Do not fight the Mom Army.

She: Fine....

__PRESENT

Long Island Graduation Party & I am a weather goddess

My friend invited me to her daughter's graduation party.  We live in the same neighborhood, our kids went to middle school together, and they are both at LaGuardia. (Her daughter is drama.)

This party is out in The Hamptons.

I have not been on Long Island since... I don't know, maybe 2017.

And It's not on the LIRR.

You have to take a bus line called The Jitney which I never heard of and found to be extraordinarily confusing to book. So naturally I put it off until the very last minute, and actually almost cancelled because I was stressed out and overwhelmed.

But I went and I'm glad I did, it was a nice time.

And now I know all about The Jitney, which is still very useless to people without cars unless someone is there to pick you up.

Non-walkable car-mandatory places stress me out a lot.

So I booked The Jitney, it's a capacity reservation thing, definitely not like a city bus or the LIRR!

I said to my friend I can't be there until 1:45.

She  said that's ok, I have to pick up my friend Melinda then too.

On the bus the staff come around checking your nae against their list.  Turns out Melinda was sitting next to me! 

We chatted the whole way over and she's fantastic!

The whole day was supposed to be thunderstorms.

Catherine said it was my fault if I didn't wear sunglasses to make it go away so I did.

I also started a painting which is part of a series Carey and I are doing together and I can't show it yet.... but it was definitely part of the weather witchery.

AND LOOK CLEAR SKIES!!!!