Summer – Part A

 

It has been a full month of activity and the month is not yet over.  The month started with about 20 Engineers arriving on our doorstep.  I wonderful impetus to get my garden finally finished.

On his arrival Uncle Glen was immediately shown his To Do List.  Over the past seven days he has achieved most of this list in between “doing” the museums, art galleries and playing hide and seek with Maxie Man.

      

Hot on his heels was the arrival of Red, J Man, Z Man and the Goddess.  How do you manage to come for three days yet pack for 30?

 

The premise of this visit was the JONAS BROTHERS concert at Nassau Coliseum.

       

The following day the skies opened up and it poured and poured and everyone went stir crazy

 

So we went bowling…and Max thought that every go was his go and every lane was his lane.  A relaxing, enjoyable afternoon…would have been choosing to stay home.

Wednesday the skies cleared and there was great rejoicing because the team (Z Man, Uncle Glen, the engineer and Flossy) were off to the baseball at the new Yankee stadium.

 

 

Whilst they were at the stadium, we went to Christmas Tree Shoppe – how thankful we are that someone invented this store.  We came away with a trunk load of glorious goodies yet somehow did not get one thing on the Art Is… list that we had planned to get?

This dilemma was easily solved.  The Baseball team came home, dinner was prepared for everyone and then the Goddess and I disappeared.  This time to Home Goods – another little slice of heaven which enables you to have a home like Martha without spending the big bucks

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Thank you Uncle Glen for my new garden, purple door, safety fence, repaired dryer, repaired oven and for the eternal call we now have every morning “Uncle Glen…where are you?”!

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We just loved helping Uncle Glen.

The White Gazette

One of our expat friends has three young kids (9, 7, 5) and to entertain them this summer, they are creating a mini newsletter each week. So Flossy decided she would do the entertainment report and I found this on the email! Now why can't the english essays be as descriptive and as easily forth coming?


Dear Reporters, I have an article that I hope can be used in your upcoming newspaper:

Jonas Brothers Concert Review

(HERSHEY)- Total darkness surrounds more than 30,000 fans of the Jonas Brothers. All are chanting "JONAS, JONAS" the excitement is increasing and people can't wait for them to come on stage. Suddenly, out of the ground we see three very familiar heads and hear a very familiar tune. Nick, Joe and Kevin, rise up playing a great song "That's Just the Way We Roll." When you thought the screaming couldn't get louder, it does. Throughout the show are wonderful lights and bangs, great songs both new and old, and even some tricks. In a song called "Goodnight and Goodbye," Nick Jonas performs some extraordinary stunts while singing. Cartwheels, flips and jumps attract even more screaming. Later it slows down when Nick plays an emotional song he wrote about his Type 1 Diabetes, "A Little Bit Longer" The Jonas Brothers wrap up the spectacular concert with two favorites, "When You Look Me in the Eyes" and "S.O.S." The Jonas Brothers latest album, "A Little Bit Longer" hits music shelves August 12th. I can predict that it will be a hit with millions. The Burnin' Up Tour has definitely been their best so far. I know I'm not alone when I say I can't wait to see more of these very talented band of brothers.

Our Burning Up Tour!

This weekend I reversed my age and went back to being 14 (some people in my family think I have never left that age but that is a whole other story!).

Flossy, two of her good school friends and I boarded the Jonas Brothers Bus (our car) and we travelled to Hershey, PA (yes Aussies, where the chocolate comes from) to see these boys in concert.


The journey started with plugging the ipod into the radio system and having the JB album pump out for the first hour, girls singing, me trying to talk to the Goddess (yes I had my ear piece in) with coffee's, vitamin waters, sour worms and M&M's to keep the sugar levels up. With an hour of JB done, we moved through the series of Disney albums, sang all the broadway musicals, played our favorite ones twice (Lion King) and discussed the history of Disney and its entertainment value.

We arrived in Hershey at about midday so we decided to do the Chocolate tour! Yum! As we walked around my freaky daughter would casually drop the word Jonas into conversation, just loud enough so that she could see who was interested! You know she is amongst friends when her buddies looked at her with laughter in their eyes but absolutely no puzzlement in their face, for they knew just how excited she was to be there. A sign of true friendship!

Then of course we moved up to the stadium to blow all our babysitting money (thank you Bronte and Kathleen!) on tour t-shirt, bag, poster, shorts and program.




We checked out the bus that is purely their autograph bus, then along with many others we tried to gain a glimpse of the boys as they rehearsed.

With the concert starting at 7:00pm, gates opening at 6:00pm and the time being 3:00pm...it was time for me to sit in the gate line and wait. All I can say is thank you Somerset Workshop! Reading all about the old fashioned but latest craze...paper mache...kept me very sane and instigated many conversations with those around me. So whilst I did what only good mothers would do (and there were a few of us), Flossy and her gal pals cruised the area, did the chocolate tour again (because you got a free "Bliss"...oh my oh my have you tasted this...chocolate).

And then we were in. Have you ever seen a grown 14 year old cry with joy? The first time was when she got tickets to see the Jonas Brothers and the second was when she realized we were 13 rows from the front!
Such a thrill to see such joy on her face and it was then that I truly realized just how passionate she really is about her music and how much joy it brings her. Of course listening to her sing every single song in the car on the way down should have given me an inkling and her ability to answer any trivial question that I raised about their favorite food, first big break, ages, likes/dislikes should have also turned the light on and perhaps the 132 posters (her friends counted them) on her walls is also a tell tale sign, but it truly wasn't until I saw her face shine with pure delight in that split second.

Of course we had Demi and Avril to listen to before the boys came out and for opening acts they were not that bad!! I actually knew most of the words of the songs (Rose was in shock) !

But at 9:00pm, after Demi and Avril had whipped this girl crowd into a frenzy ...the pyro show started and we were away... transported, to JB Land!

I had forgotten what it was like to have music pumping through your veins.

I truly enjoyed myself. The show was great, the music was great, the staging was great and I forgot I was "an old girl"...until the 12 year old beside me screamed her scream that only dogs can hear and then I thought how great it would be if we could all sit down, stop screaming, listen to the words of the songs and watch the spectacular scene before us and then I realized that whilst my heart felt like it was 14 again my head had certainly aged a little more!

At the end of the night, it was back to the hotel to review our photos and discuss every last detail whilst we all lay in bed with our bodies numb and our hearts full from a great day and night of girls on tour.


We had a great weekend together with lots of laughs. Flossy's friends are truly wonderful girls who have become very special to us. They reminded me of my highschool friends - Stokes, Coops, Bannigan and Hendo (we all called each other by our last names). I am glad that she has found her own little group (one was missing because she was at Ballet Camp with the Boston Ballet) and that she is content.

Memorable Moments?

1. Realizing my daughter can blow through $150 in 5 minutes when she is passionate about something.

2. Wondering if they had hand sanitizer off stage - the performers touched a lot of hands whilst they were out on stage.

3. Tears of joy.

4. Putting my hand to my chest and enjoying the sensation of the music pumping through my body.

5. Holding my camera up high to get "that" picture for my daughter to enjoy post event.

6. Realizing that I want to do it all again!

Postscript: Maxamillion and the Engineer bonded over Thomas videos, lawn mowing and learning that you don't leave your lap top within reach of little hands...