Soap Opera

First off - I'm really running late, again. I know, what else is new? Things have been "hairy" to say the least of late. So, first things first and that means I'm posting two Bushism's right now in order to get caught up in that respect.

Monday - May 7, 2007 (with apologies for missing posting ANYTHING yesterday)
"I can assure you that, even though I won't be sitting through every single moment of the seminars, nor will the vice president, we will look at the summaries." - Waco, Texas; August 13, 2002

and for Tuesday, May 8, 2007
"If the terriers and bariffs are torn down, this economy will grow." - Rochester, New York; January 7, 2000.

Now, on to a few other things.
First, the latest from Maya - on Sunday, as she was dancing around the room here, pretty much just running in circles, I asked her what the heck did she think she was doing. "Are you dancing, Maya?" And, to that her reply was "Dirty dancing, Grammie." Now where the dickens did she come up with that terminology? The movie hasn't been on - to my knowledge - lately and even if it were, I wouldn't be watching it as once around the block (ok, maybe I have watched it twice) was enough for me. "Gone With The Wind" and "The Wizard of Oz" are probably the only movies I will try to watch every chance I get on the tv when they are shown - again.

Things appear at the moment to be shaping up quite nicely now for the upcoming visit at the end of this week by "The Swedes." This would be a group of three women and a gentleman who have been in the states since April 28th, doing family tree research seminars for people with Swedish ancestry. They will be arriving here this Thursday - I found out late last nite via an e-mail from one lady in the group that they will be here at 1 p.m. Thursday afternoon. So today, I've been trying to contact a few of the people from the area who will be "hosting" them at some point in time during their stay. So far, we have things in place for a lady from our church who will have them for supper Thursday evening; another couple from a nearby village will have them Friday night for dinner and in all likelihood, I will be their "chef" (there's a joke) on Saturday at they will most likely be at my house for supper that day. But on Friday afternoon, we have things in place to have them attend a smallish luncheon at the little local restaurant here - Jim and Charmaine's place - and anyone with roots to Sweden who would like to meet them, learn a little about Family Tree stuff or folks who would like to meet them and share their knowledge about the local community too - history buffs, come on out - here's a great opportunity to meet some interesting folks and share your interests and knowledge all at the same time! At last count, I think we have upwards of 16 people who said they will try to attend the luncheon -so that plus the four Swedes, gives us about 20 at least then. Should be fun, don't you think?
Now, why did I title this piece "Soap Opera?" Well, for openers, this visit is a "big deal" in a small town such as this is, especially to a lot of the old timers here and those interested in family tree information. The antics of my little princess from time to time also constitutes a mini-soap opera but there have been more things going on just yesterday or in the past week I suppose, that really makes for some good soap opera material. But I'm not going to delve into the crux of that stuff mainly because enough crapola has already hit the fans and riled up a goodly number of people -within the family, on the periphery of the family and throughout the village that for me to discuss it would be tantamount to naming names, places, etc., and those players in this whole scenario really don't WANT to have my take on the whole mess!
Just suffice it to say the stepgranddaughter stepped into the middle of this pile of "doo" and didn't come out smelling exactly like the rose I think she thought would be available to her.
That, plus her latest brouhaha at school pertaining to her grades - and well, she is in up to her eyeballs right now. The school thing seemed to be simmering down with respect to her study habits -poor, at best - and the failing grades in math and science were being worked on. Then yesterday she brings home a paper to be signed because all of a sudden now, she's not doing the work required in her American History class! Geez, Louise!
This one really annoys me probably because I love history and have a hard time understanding what people see as boring about a subject so near and dear to my own heart. Math and science - now I can understand anyone having difficulty with those subjects but history? Give me a break here.
Well, the teacher had given her two options to gain extra credit for her grade. One was to read "Gone With The Wind" -and when she asked me if I'd ever read that book and I told her several times and that it is probably my all-time favorite book - I think she's already seen the size of it - she looked at me with a really big "Are you TOTALLY crazy, look?" Yes, I am and she should know that well enough by now. This option though apparently won't pan out because it seems she is currently not allowed to withdraw any more books from the library because she has at least two books out now that should have long since been returned but she can't find them! Brother! I asked if she had tried looking around the house to locate those books and she says she had but then I asked if she'd looked in the closet in the sunporch, adjacent to my room and she said "no" which tells me she hasn't begun to do any serious searching for these books. Ok -so GWTW has now been ruled out and we move on to the second option.
This one is that she memorize and recite, sans error, The Gettysburg Address. Well, it seems the child feels this is way too long a piece to try to memorize and besides that, "it's boring."
BORING? The Gettysburg Address? How the heck can anyone read that and find it "boring?" It's one of the most moving speeches ever delivered, ranks right up there with President Kennedy's "Ask Not" speech in his inaugural address in 1961, doesn't it? Moving, totally moving, is how I view President Lincoln's address. But then, she probably thinks I was present at Gettysburg when he delivered that speech too and besides, what the heck does this old so-and-so know about anything at all anyway? Ya know what I mean there?
She didn't like it when I questioned her about the part she played in the recent school play - "West Side Story" and how much she had to memorize for that role. Oh, it was just a small part was her comeback to that and granted it wasn't a lead role but it was an important one and yes, she had to memorize a good bit of dialogue, which she mastered perfectly. When I pointed out to her that because she not only had to learn her speaking part but also ALL the dialogue of the characters around her, on each time her character was on stage, then she had memorized way more than the amount of words involved in the Gettysburg address and there is absolutely no reason then why she feels incapable of memorizing this speech.
And furthermore, it is anything but BORING!
The teacher of her history class just happened to call here this morning to talk to Mandy - who had already left to go to State College this morning - and who I just happen to know quite well too, have known her since she was just a toddler because I also knew this teacher's GRANDMOTHER quite well too - and we talked for a while on the phone about history and problems with textbooks and getting/keeping kids interested in what happened at this time or that in the history of this country. And, this teacher knows how much I love history too as well as she knows how I am about lots of things - obnoxious, at times. Ok, obnoxious a good deal of the time since putting things in a blog should have honesty as a requirement ya know, so I may as well 'fess up to that here and now! Lest someone who knows me really well reads my stuff and begins to spout off in the comments section that this is one of my better known traits around town you see!
So anyway, I'll leave the real "Soap opera" story to whatever your imagination wants to conjure up that would make for really juicy gossip, etc., in a small town -mainly so as to not get myself in any more trouble than I already manage to stir up all of my own volition.
And now, since I'm still way behind on my other projects here too - sewing, for starters, meal plans for supper tonight which I haven't even begun thinking about yet, organizing more stuff for the Swedes visit, working on my project for my class reunion, knitting yet another scarf and of course, my research work about the local township here - and since Mandy took the grandkids with her today too and I have the house to myself for a couple hours yet (I hope), I better get off my duff, and get cracking to at least pull something out to start thawing and then, while I don't have to worry about watching to see what a certain three-year-old is dabbling in here, get moving on the sewing project first.
Till the next installment on the Small Town Soap.