We were dropping Dexter off at school the other day and as soon as I put the car into park I realized that he forgot his violin. I let this sink in without saying anything while he got ready to disembark. First he said “oh shoot” and then casually, in a way I imagine only a pre-teen is capable of, he insisted that I go home and retrieve it and bring it back to the office. This all said without a hint of understanding that he was adding 50 minutes of effort to my pre-day ritual.

I pushed back a bit: “what would happen if you didn’t show up today?”

He replied: “Dad, I’m vice president of the second row violins. If Ascon doesn’t show up, and he’s been absent a lot lately, the second row won’t even have the back up second row vice president to lead them and our concert is 5 days away.”

“Okay, I’ll have your violin at the office by 9am”

Tatum and I drove home to get the violin and decorate it so Dex would feel comfortable walking the school grounds with a violin during mid day.

We left it at the office and they didn’t seem to notice anything unusual about a pink heart covered instrument case. It was the only one there.

[ joke executed, I feel better about the inconvenience ]

Fast forward to 3pm when we picked up Dex… he came bounding up with a big smile.

“Guess what dad? Someone at the office covered my violin with pink hearts and a bow.”

[ this joke got a little bit better ]

“Oh really, someone at the office did that huh?”

“Yeah, there were like five other instruments there and they all had pink heart sticky notes on them.”

[ Okay this joke got a lot better ]

Someone, other than the receptionist I talked to at the office, must have seen the violin and come over to see what the deal was and upon seeing Dexter’s name on the pink hearts /got/ the joke and passed it along to the other forgetful kids.

We may never meet but that person and I shared a moment.

It has been years since we did this… but I want to start up the roll call again…. when sent a message you are to send back a picture of yourself for posting onto the teamcornell website.

Did some venting today

Tatum asked if she could have two straws for her drink and I responded like I normally do:  “two straws!? What, is it Mardi Gras!?”

That’s the first time in a thousand it actually /was/ Mardi Gras.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aCKwzQJj_Z4&feature=youtube_gdata_player

Never have I been happier that my boy plays the violin than when he said to me: “hey dad, my g-string broke at school today”

The kids are taking advantage of the “if you want to stay up, play music” rule.

Mariel decided to make stromboli because we had 6 extra kids over today.

Starring Tatum, played by Tatum.

She never brings in something to share that starts with the letter of the week – but no one seems to care because sometimes it’s a hat with a bunny on it and if that doesn’t start with “I” so be it.

It takes a lot for me to feel hopeful or even proud of belonging to a group of people. This library makes me hopeful and it is really amazing. Right in the heart of the city and set up to get lots of people using it. So fantastic.