LaGuardia Dance Ensemble Performance

Daya performed tonight for a cancer benefit.

She's part of the LaGuardia Dance Ensemble, which is a select group of LaGuardia dancers.
They only take 15 kids and it is audition-based.

Here she is after the show right before we left. She was amazing and I am very proud of her.

Statistical Outlier

Wow I made it to July 25 and my lens measurement appointment!
Just over a week to go now!

I have been to the dr more in the last couple weeks than since Daya was born.
As it turns out, aside from being as healthy as I knew I am, I am a bit anemic.  So, iron pills for a while and I have to go back AGAIN at the end of Aug.

I'm all cleared and measured for surgery.  There are a few different types of lens implants, monofocal and multifocal, but I can only get a monofocal because of the refraction error.

The mutifocal ones don't exist for my statistical group.

My doctor says I am a "statistical outlier"..... well, it's not the worst thing to be called.
He wants me to me somewhat conscious during surgery. I'm not thrilled with that but he's a good doctor- a wizard actually, so I'll take his word that it isn't scary.

I'm just about positive my cataract has gotten worse.  Dr said yes they often develop quickly and it would really be a problem in 6 months.

****
I have some cool pictures of Daya from Sunday but I am behind.  Will get to it.

I really cannot see well at all in these glasses.

It's almost over.  What a weird odd month this has been.

*****
Daya is doing well at SAI.  One week to go.
She has made friends, including 2 other Laguardians.
So she'll go into the first day with a known friend in dance.

****
OH AND I got an email last night from Steps, Daya's second (and very spendy) intensive which I paid ($1800+) for a few months ago.... they wrote me to tell me they changed their tuition structure and they refunded me $80.

When does that ever happen!

Easter

We went to Jackie's for Easter and the annual egg hunt.

Here is the best Easter conversation ever:

Jenn:  This chair feels like it is going to fall underneath me.
Jackie:  That's because it came out of the garbage!

Laguardia Open House

Tonight we went to the open house for accepted students.  Daya is so excited.
I'm glad she will be there, and I'm glad she is in a small department. (Dance is the second smallest after theater tech.)

Since the dance students don't perform at all until Junior/Senior year, they aren't in competition with each other.  I like that.

I heard from staff and other students that the dance kids tend to stick together, and I like that, too.  LaG is a big school, and I'm glad Daya will have a small home inside such a large place.

She will have academic classes with kids from the other studios, which is also good.  But the dance kids are together in class for all 4 years- 3 hours a day 5 days a week- and they are expected to be a family.  I hope it is really like that.  The dance students do seem to be pretty happy.  The demo class they gave was lovely.

As usual I spent too much time wandering around in the art rooms and art gallery.  Daya gets cross with me for being too interested in the art department.  But I can't help it.  There are paintings ALL OVER the school, which I think is just wonderful.  There is some wonderful work, too. And I love that they have the art kids doing full-out oil painting.

I am so very, very proud of Daya!!

Fiorello H. Laguardia High School Of Music & Art and Performing Arts

Daya got into the dance program at Laguardia!!!

The whole name of the school is probably the longest of all NYC schools:
Fiorello H. Laguardia High School Of Music & Art and Performing Arts.

And it is an AWESOME place to be.  (Even though everyone hates the principal.)

She has wanted this since 5th grade.
So back then I told her if she really wants it, she'll have to work very, very hard over years for it-- and she did it!

I don't know how many dance kids got in this year, but last year I believe it was around 80.

Actually WE did it, as there is no way she could do it without some very serious mom-support, and I have done this support on my own for the most part.  But it was enough, and this will be an AMAZING 4 years.

She is glowing!!

It is probably time for the ridiculous Laguardia Tree to come down; it has seen better days and has been up since November.  I'm sure Daya is the onliest kid ever in NYC to have a Laguardia Tree.

*****
Daya also received an offer to the Specialized High School of Math, Science, and Engineering from her SHSAT score of 530.  This is pretty awesome, especially considering I didn't put her in a SHSAT test prep course (because of dance scheduling) and she did minimal prep from a couple of books.

It is one of the 8 specialized academic high schools in NYC (LaG is the ninth but doesn't use the SHSAT), and she would be there if she hadn't gotten Laguardia.  She put this one down as her second choice, Stuyvesant was first.  To be honest neither of us cared too much about SHSAT results, but I wanted her to take it to open up options.  If I had test-prepped her I'm sure she could have gone to Stuyvesant.  Everyone who gets in there has test-prepped for at least a year, but more often 2 years before taking the SHSAT.****

But HSMSE is a really amazing school and I just could not be more proud of her.

Her regular high school offer was an engineering program at an engineering high school.

I still expect Daya to continue being a total math geek at Laguardia.

****That's why there was a lawsuit about specialized high school admissions, because the student populations are becoming less and less diverse.  Everyone test-preps their kids for these schools, Satuirday classes 2 years before the test are very common.  The specialized high schools only look at the SHSAT score, which is very narrow criteria.

Nexstar

Here are some pictures from Competition this weekend.
We were in NJ and had to stay overnight.
Daya competed 4 dances this year.

The studio KILLED it at competition- every single dance placed, they are going to Nationals again, and they got the studio award for professionalism which almost no one gets.

I am so proud!!

(I did start a painting of the stage but need to finish it up at home)

Pas de chat

I discovered Daya practicing in her pointe shoes while holding the cat.
So I told her she was doing pas de chat.  She got a "look" that clearly said "Um NO what the heck..." then her face changed when she got it.

Although Daya refused to laugh, she did admit I made a very good joke.

(Pas de chat is a ballet move that means cat-step. )

Weird...?

All my pictures are missing from my blog....?
Yesterday everything looked fine and nothing has changed.....

I hope this is a glitch that will resolve itself.

Tomorrow is Halloween. It will be the first year ever in her life that Daya isn't going trick-or-treating, which is sad.  For me, not her.

Happy Halloween from Mystery Lake.

I had trouble getting this picture to display.
This has to be an issue with Blogger.
Something is weird.

UPDATE: Uploading that picture seems to have.... fixed....something, everything mostly seems to be back.

So if your pictures disappeared from your blog, upload another picture and see if they come back.

Pointe Shoes Again

And it's that time again, new pointe shoes.
Daya likes Blochs and said she needed another fitting, so we went there after work yesterday.

I don't know why she can't stick to the same shoe that worked last time- but she wanted to change something, I have no idea what.  Dancers are very weird about their feet and shoes.  That's why there are so many different kinds and variations of pointe shoes.

Daya must have tried all of them on!
The lovely men who helped her were so nice, helpful and patient.  It's good that dancers work in these shops, because they all speak some kind of dancer-language no one else knows.  But she finally found a pair.

I suppose I am like that with paint.

Mouth Fence Removal

Daya got her braces off on Monday.

Her final meal was..... pizza!

Here she is in mouth-fence removal gear...

Of course she wanted to watch the proceedings.

And her teeth look great!

On Tuesday, Daya came to meet me after work... we had a high school open house (PPAS),and to celebrate her braces coming off, we went to Bubba Gump for some nice shrimp.
We watched Forrest Gump over the weekend, so Daya could appreciate the restaurant.  She loved it.

We were both completely unimpressed with PPAS... to the point where Daya doesn't even want to bother auditioning.  It's a dump.  The building is pretty terrible.  Some bits of it are literally crumbling.  It was probably a nice space once, maybe 60 years ago....The performers were ok, but nothing outstanding from any other high school.  The academics are not good.  The upside would be taking daily classes at Ailey. It is a tiny school.... 335 kids from 6-12.  I think a more "normal" high school environment would be better.

So for performing arts high schools, she will only audition for Laguardia and Sinatra.

If something falls through and she doesn't get into either school (which is unlikely) then she will not go to high school for performing arts.

Sundries

I broke my fast Friday afternoon. Most of my energy came back immediately, and the rest was back by Saturday.

Friday night I made the most wonderful carrot soup in my crockpot.  It is SO GOOD.

******
The neighbors upstairs did... something..... I don't know what.... to muffle their music.  Last night I could tell they had their music on but it was coming through the ceiling very vaguely, and is acceptable.

I can only hope this continues and they continue to implement whatever they did.  I'm not sure if they were on full volume or not, I didn't go upstairs to check.  But I will, just because I am curious.

The good thing about this is that I'm..... slowly.... starting to release the anxiety around it.
The landlord must have really put the pressure on them, which I deeply appreciate.  He wasn't keen on my wanting to do soundproofing construction.  Especially since they lied about the last time they blasted.  They told the landlord they weren't--- but I had sent video proof of the noise coming from their apartment.  It is always good to listen to your intuition, even when it tells you to do some odd things. The landlord believed me.

What I truly want is peaceful and harmonious living with those around me.
And honestly I still hope they move but if this is how it will be going forward, and they don't blast my home, I'm fine with it.  Time will tell.

******
I'm still driving, and doing very well.
Driving in my neighborhood is totally different from rush hour Manhattan and the Bronx, and I'm pretty comfortable with it, actually.  I'm now driving with Mohammed, who has 5% vision in his left eye, so he gets it.  AND- it is totally completely fine!

I just need to get on the freeway, then I should be good to go.  I feel so much better, truly.
Mohammed is supercool, a great guy, and this is just the last bit of instruction that I need.

He says yes, definitely, rent a zipcar and practice.

Charlie is a good teacher.  I do have to say that.
He did give me a good foundation, and a lot of experience in difficult situations.
This makes me more relaxed in a "normal" environment, because I have absolutely been through worse. And I'm so used to looking out for 5 million things, so when it is just 2 million it is a lot easier.

******
Daya gets her mouth-fence off today! (braces)
I will be done paying for it in December.
Sort-of, as I have incurred debt.

September to Now, Consolidated

I need to catch up with September.
Overall I have been dealing with some pretty bad anxiety, but honestly I really think anyone in my situation would be, I think I am having normal reactions to highly stressful situations.

Labor Day:
Daya and I rented a boat in Flushing Meadows and had a lovely day.





Tram:
I took Daya on the Roosevelt Island tram.
Now she has done all the NYC transportation options: car, boat, train, bus, walking, bike, tram.






Keyring
Daya told me she lost the key to the lobby. This is a very odd thing to lose, so I asked her how it happened.

Apparently she thought that taking her keys off the keyring and letting them float around loose was a good idea.

She does not know why she thought this was a good idea.

I'm not going to let her live it down.  Ever.

Locked In
We got locked in the dance studio.
Here is a picture of Daya unsuccessfully trying to get out.
Ms Victoria was the only other person in the building and she had to come downstairs from the 4th floor to rescue us.

Rat Sitting
We had 5 house guests for most of the month... 5 lovely rats from an artist who went on an art residency in France.
They were really excellent rats.

Painting:
I am still working on a new series of Topiary cats. I have 5 paintings out of 7 going in various stages of completion.

I also built and launched my website and had some cards printed.  It was a LOT of work, and I was literally working like a crazy person for three days straight.  Then I kept tweaking and changing things over the next 2 weeks, including breaking stuff and having to fix it.  My site is an evolution, but it is good for now and I'm SO GLAD this has finally been accomplished.  I have been needing to do it for years...actually started a few years ago but never finished it.

Upstairs Noise:
I still have a dumb amount of anxiety about it.  They have been quiet for the past couple of weeks.
But there have been some issues, and I know my reaction is overblown especially when they are quiet.  When they blast I go into crazy-mode and it takes me a long time to calm down from it.

Apparently from talking to others and reading stuff, I'm pretty normal in my reaction to unwanted noise in my home.  It is severe as I have only had a reduction in the last few months... otherwise it has been consistent for the last year and a half and my nerves are completely shot.

Even when they are quiet I can't quite let go of the anticipation.

I'm over-stressed.
I can't seem to get my relaxation back down to 0 no matter how hard I try.
Everything is too much.
And there's stuff with Daya too that I just don't want to write about, but it is enormously stressful.

Time Travel:
We apparently went back to the year 2000.

Driving:
I have done over 60 hours with Charlie in the car. A lot of it has been in scary rush hour Manhattan, including 4 lane unmarked construction roads which is freaking scary.

Because the days are getting shorter and I have a daylight only license, I have to stop my lessons.  I know I need to make that jump to going out alone, so I enrolled in Zipcar. I mentioned it to Charlie on our last lesson and he had a really weird reaction.  It was not encouraging at all.  He said I was skipping his process.

It was POURING rain during our lesson and he was really emphasizing all my mistakes and acting.... just really differently than he ever has.

My confidence plummeted to complete zero.

I spent a couple of days being very upset.

Then I contacted a driving school right in my neighborhood for an evaluation lesson, which as of the writing of this post I haven't done yet, but will do this weekend.

I still need to learn how to park, and I need freeway lessons as I have not done either of those things.  I also want a driving school to evaluate my driving overall and fill in any gaps.

In addition to zipcar, I got a GPS and a driver seat pillow for a few extra inches because I really am that short and can't see over the dashboard.

I'm still feeling really scared and need to build my confidence, but honestly I really should be ok for the most part especially in normal roads that are not Manhattan construction rush hour traffic.  Plus, the GPS will help me a lot too.  I just feel there is so much I still don't know.

Work

I now work for a different company as of Tuesday because we got bought.

Nothing has changed, but there will be cuts and that starts next week.

The Cats:

They are fine.

Uncategorized Cool Picture:
From the dance team meeting.

8th Grade!

We made it to 8th grade!!!!!

Here are the traditional first day of school pictures, taken in the same place since the first day of preschool.

I have good hopes for this year.  There is a lot to do over the next several months- high school applications and auditions.  It will all be over by December.  Daya has done all the prep work.  She has done literally everything she could do, both\in grades and dance.  There is nothing we could have done differently, nothing we didn't do that we should have done.  She is in an excellent place to get excellent results.

So now we are in the home stretch, which is stressful, but in truth all the hard work is already finished.  

One more year in middle school, one more year at the studio where Daya has been dancing for the last 7 years.  She has done extremely well and I am very proud.