Happi Labor Day weekend!

I know. I'm so funny.

My lateness induced hypertension peaked on Saturday morning, when I knew that my mom would get here at 8am to pick up the kids. We were going to meet close to 10 at the garden, and I was told to expect 20 extra minutes of traffic. Ack! Time crunch! Then, it rained. And I got a call that we needed to get to the garden at 9:30 to load. Double ack! Mom came, we loaded the kids, Josh and I hopped into the car, and my heart started to race. We were halfway there when Andrew called to say that the opening ceremony was cancelled and we wouldn't be needed until evening.

For a minute, we didn't know what to do. Go home? Go to the garden? Stop somewhere in between? We stopped and got some snacks and bottles of water and I changed out of my performance black, then we did end up going to the festival. We hung out in the maintenance building for a while, and did some shopping, and walked around in the rain a lot.

It was very rainy. I had my little black umbrella. I bought it for the New Orleans trip, because the only other umbrella I have is big, and difficult to pack. But the third time I tried to open it...it wouldn't. Josh had to rig it and tie it for it to stay open, but then I couldn't close it. Jaci suggested I get a new one at the gift shop, so we headed that way. While he was in line buying me a new- and, I must say, expensive umbrella - I went to throw my old one in the trash. At the trash can I scowled at my black umbrella and said, "Okay, this is your last chance," and pushed the button. It opened perfectly. As the guy standing behind me giggled, I rushed back to Josh to tell him I didn't need the new umbrella....but it was too late. I still haven't taken it out of the box, but I am the proud owner of a lovely pink flower umbrella from the MO Botanical Gardens.

For Grant and Abbie, I got little red rubber ducks with ninja face masks and numb-chucks (hope that is how you spell that). Yay for ninja ducks (as if turtles weren't bad enough)! I bought tabi socks for myself, but I count that as a uniform item and not so much a souvenir. I wanted to get a present for our neighbor, Bree, but I couldn't find anything she'd like. For lunch, we had some wonderful sushi. Mine was eel. SO tasty!

I also played the taiko in the dashi with Eddie for a while, and with Helena, and with Junsei and several combinations. It was actually a lot of fun. Josh wandered back and forth. It wasn't very long after that when we found out the evening show was cancelled, too. The ground was just too wet for the audience to walk back and forth on. Josh and I toyed with the idea of going to a movie, but ended up grabbing Sonic (I had been craving a cherry limeade for over a month, but the two Sonics closest to us closed) and watching our Netflix movies at home. Ever seen 27 Dresses? Not nearly as pointless as I expected. Cute in fact. The dialog is well written, which is a very major point with me.

When I got to the garden on Sunday I knew right away that all shows had been approved, so it was a lot different. I got ready early and we did lots of loading, went to the stage, and discovered that we were super-punctual. In fact, we were way early. I found that highly entertaining, and a lot restful, too. But I think it was so restful that our energy for the first performance was only adequate. But we had fun. I was with the group that paraded with the dashi after the show, and that was also much more fun than I had anticipated. So I stayed and played a few songs with Maki and Andrew before I went back and changed. Lots of us ate together after that, and I had more sushi - shrimp tempura this time. Also very yummy! Plus, we got green tea ice cream. For a while, our friend Jocelyn and her not-so-appetizing looking fish cake sat with us, too. Good times.

The second performance was better and worse. In both performances, we had a lot of trouble with the drum movements. I found out later that it was largely due to a single person, but it doesn't matter much. During the second performance our energy was better. But Junsei had been drinking all day long. That's all I have to say about that. Jaci helped by adjusting our drum as she went by for Zoku, but I didn't start the song exactly on time. I don't mind that, so I hope no one else did. When Julie and I were moving the big Oodaiko stand up the hill, the large beam across the top fell on my arm. Okay, it's oak and 4x4. Yes, it hurt. But mostly it scared me to death, because it very easily could have broken my arm. During the performance I didn't feel it at all, but as soon as we were done, and I was helping put things away, it started to throb uncomfortably.

Helena's boyfriend, Kevin and I stayed the night at her house. I am very grateful to Helena and her parents for that. They are so generous. First, though, I waited in the maintenance building while the happy couple did the moonlight walk. A sweet little security guard came and locked up, and he was very polite and considerate to me. May good fortune follow him. I was starting to be impatient and cranky, when Laura showed up at the door, looking desperate. She's left her keys inside. I let her in so she could get them, and then I felt that my being there had served some purpose and I was perfectly happy. Later, Helena and Kevin showed back up and it was time to go to her place. The only major hitch in those proceedings was when we walked all the way to the lot where Helena's car was parked and it was gated and locked. We had to push the call button and ask to be let out.

Helena has a little black kitty who is very sweet and friendly.

Monday we all arrived and I got changed for pictures. In the between time, I did some more playing in the dashi, this time with Julie and Eddie. The kids were so funny. Some of them didn't want to leave. Helena was going to do my hair, but she and Kevin still wanted to do some shopping, so she did it after the pictures instead. Josh came and joined us, too. He "helped" take pictures (never allow Josh around a camera - he takes stills when no one is ready, and his videos will make you seasick) and he was a great help loading. He even passed out programs for a while. My cousin and our friend Molly came to the show. Mackenzie only saw the first half, and Molly only saw the second, but at least Josh always had someone to sit by. Show went well. I made one actual mistake in Drive, which I never have before, so I was temporarily bummed about that. Otherwise, it was just lots of fun. I got cornered by a journalism student afterward, so if any of you read the newspaper at SIU, be sure to look out for that article!! And if your name happens to be Julie, I asked Joel how to spell your last name perfectly, just to make sure, when I was siting your amazingly choreographed dance for Run To You.

Then comes the part where we go to UMSL and unload, right? Wrong. Josh didn't know how to get there. He threw a map booklet at me and then was mad when I didn't immediately tell him where to go. Well.....first I had to find out which page we were currently on, and then find the page with our destination and then find out which way to go to get there, because he didn't even know if we were East or West of UMSL. So we spent a long time in the wrong place, and then he insisted on taking Hanley instead of 170... So we missed everyone. Skipping the Josh and Rosemary near-divorce....we all had dinner together. It was fun. We were late and left early. How rude! But I had to get home to meet my parents. I was super nervous that I'd be late for that, too, but we drove like the wind and beat them here with 12 minutes to spare!!! So I cleaned the bathroom and picked up toys until they showed up.

And then...I was the most perfectly happy and content human being ever to exist. AH! My babies had been good and were home, my mommy was there, my husband and dad were happily looking at the entertainment center project, I had happy stories to tell, and ninja ducks to pass out, my tummy was full of good food, and my pictures were freshly uploaded. Yay for life.

If your Labor Day weekend was half as good as mine was, then yay for you! And if your name is Eddie, thank your wife again from me. Those cookies were the only breakfast I had on Sunday. She's my hero.