Ms. Becca challenged Shawn to new swimming skills today. While Ms. Brittany was with the other students, she coached us on blowing bubbles in the water and bobbing under water, neither of which Shawn had ever done before. I’ve tried to get him to blow bubbles before, but he would just end up inhaling the water and choking instead. But, not today! After practicing how to blow above the water, then on the surface, he managed to blow a few bubbles with his mouth partially under the water!! Wa-Hoo!!! Then, Ms. Becca positioned Shawn and me next to each other holding on to the side of the pool. She had me show him how to go under the water and come back up, a bob. Then Shawn did it, too! He didn’t quite get his whole head under water, but she explained that at this level, going under up to their eyes is all that is necessary. Fantastic! (It’s amazing what Shawn is willing to do for Ms. Becca!)
With the successful demonstration of blowing bubbles and bobbing, Shawn got a progress report that indicated he is ready for the next level of swimming classes, Pike (withOUT parent) – under one condition, Ms. Becca has to get her director’s approval because Shawn is not old enough. Pike is designed for students who are ages 3-5. After looking at the program descriptions online, I noticed that Shawn’s current level, Pike with Parent, is technically a transition class for 3 year olds who are “new to swim lessons or group participation and still need a parent to accompany them in the water. The instructor will try to work one-on-one with each child to get them accustomed to the lesson environment.” If he’s already technically in a level for 3 year olds, I’m hoping it won’t be too difficult to convince the director to let him move up. The next level, Pike (without parent), is to “learn the basic paddle stroke on their front, back, and sides, kicking skills, and become comfortable with having their face in the water while blowing bubbles and swimming.” It seems like such a huge difference from basically playing with water toys, singing songs in the pool, and a dabble of other swimming skills tossed in (depending on the teacher)! At this point, my biggest concern is how Shawn would respond to a new teacher without me in the pool with him. If he gets to work with Ms. Becca, I think he’d transition pretty smoothly; however, there’s no guarantee who his teacher would be and he just hasn’t responded to some of the teachers he’s already had. When he didn’t respond to one, it wasn’t a huge deal because he’d just work with me most of the time anyway; but, at the next level of classes, I wouldn’t be in the pool with him to help. On the other hand, he’s got to learn how to work with all kinds of people eventually, so we may as well start!
If the director won’t approve the next level, I wonder if Ms. Becca could give private lessons… either way, I’ll keep my fingers crossed…
This evening I played the harp for a black-tie-optional wedding at the Four Seasons in Chicago. The bride is friends with the mother of a Phi Sig with whom I went to college. (They’ve helped to pass my name around to brides-to-be a number of times. In fact, the only times I’ve actually seen Jackie since we graduated from U of I have been at various weddings!) I played the prelude, processional, candle lighting, recessional, cocktail hour, and during dinner at the reception. Aside from my sore, pink fingertips and aching hands afterwards, it felt really good to ‘gig’ again. I’ve had a few small jobs, but it’s been a very long time since I’ve had something like this. (Not that I enjoyed navigating the maddening streets – and pedestrians - of downtown Chicago, though.)
Though I met with the bride and groom a few weeks ago to discuss the music for the ceremony, things didn’t go quite the way we had planned. First of all, it took a LOT longer to find my way to the loading dock and security office in order to unload and use the freight elevator than I had anticipated. Once I got to the loading dock, there was no one around to point me in the direction of where the freight elevator was! (It’s a very unsettling feeling to be roaming the underground labyrinth of a city hotel alone!) Once I found it, it was fairly easy to find my way to the ceremony room, but still no one was around. No wedding coordinator or workers... No members of the wedding party... No officiate… Again, it was a bit eerie! Then, I had to go back down to the loading dock to move my car. I drove around the block (which is more complicated than it should be because of all the one-way streets) to the valets for parking. (It’s a good thing I didn’t intend to self-park or I may have been late to the wedding!) I had just enough time to quickly tune and warm up, during which the photographer arrived, but I still hadn’t seen anyone else! In all of my other weddings, there’s someone to touch base with or someone coordinating the event. The bride told me that there would be someone like that today too, but they must’ve been coordinating other people because I didn’t catch a glimpse until the wedding was about to begin.
Anyway, after all of that rushing around to get there, the wedding coordinator didn’t open the doors to the ceremony room for the guests to come in. Just a few minutes before the ceremony was to begin, a guest opened the door himself and asked if they could come in. So, I had a few extra moments to get settled and catch my breath and I was able to save a handful of pieces to play later in the evening, since I didn’t have to play for very long prelude. The bride requested that I play Gram’s Lullaby by Nancy Gustavson as the final piece of the prelude, as the signal that the attendants should get ready to walk down to the next song, Processional by Linda Wood. When I got the signal from the wedding coordinator, for lack of a better title, to begin, I played Gram’s Lullaby… and the officiate, groom, and attendants walked in! They didn’t walk in at the beginning of the piece either - they walked in ¾ of the way through! So, there wasn’t enough music to get them all down the aisle and it wasn’t at a point where a repeat would flow nicely, so I jumped to Processional (as the intended piece) just long enough to get the last one up to the altar. That wasn’t exactly the way we had discussed the procession to go! Fortunately, the rest of the ceremony went much more smoothly.
At the cocktail hour, I realized I should’ve set up in the opposite corner from where I was because there was barely enough light for me to read my music. Luckily, the atrium was loud enough that I don’t think people really noticed my musical blindness! During the reception, the DJ played background music and I was able to take a break while guests were getting seated and toasts were made. The bride and groom arranged to have dinner available for me, so I ate quickly in another room while I had the chance.
When I was done playing for the evening and I was packing up my things in the atrium outside the reception hall, an old bartender handed me a glass of wine and said that my work was done. At first I resisted, but I wasn’t exactly in a rush to go back to the loading docks, so I sat and relaxed for a few minutes. I needed that! I took my things to the freight elevator and talked to a very friendly security officer about leaving my harp and things in his sight. Then, I went to the front lobby to retrieve my car from the valet. I asked if they would deliver it to the loading dock, but because of security purposes, that couldn’t be done. However, a valet, who had just gotten off duty, helped me find an easier (and much less scary) way to bring the freight elevator to the street level and then helped me load everything in front of the hotel, which I thought was ‘strictly forbidden’ according to the information I had received from the hotel before the wedding, but who was I to complain?! (Just before put the harp in my van, a taxi pulled up beside me and a whole party of women poured out to come in to the hotel. As they walked/staggered past the open trunk, they giggled and pointed at the mattress. I cordially justified that it’s for the harp, which was just inches away, and they half-apologized.) I thanked the generous valet profusely for all of his help… if only he had been around a few hours earlier when I had first arrived! And then, I headed home.
Shawn was still awake when I got home. He was very excited to tell me he watched the Disney/Pixar Cars movie and ate popcorn with Daddy. Even though it was very late, it took quite a while to let go of all the stimulation of his evening and finally fall asleep. Eventually, I crawled into my own bed and drifted off with Gram’s Lullaby playing in my head.
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