(Sunday Paper, Year VIII, Issue 20)

This is when things get super-crazy around here:

It’s dance recital weekend and that means our normal routine of driving back and forth between many dance classes during the week is replaced by driving back and forth to a further destination for dance recital rehearsals on the big stage.

For some reason this year felt a little more streamlined - maybe it’s because the girls are older and we can kind of drop them off for a while and get other things done during the multiple hours of rehearsals.

(Side note: It can be very productive. I’ve done a lot of writing while I sit and wait for dance class to be over and especially sitting at the college waiting for these recital rehearsals to end.)

It’s all very busy - but I like it very much.

Quite possibly the most shocking thing I’ve learned about myself in my parenting years was how much I enjoy dance recitals.

When I was growing up they were not my favorite place to be, with all due respect to my sister.

Often it was the event I had to go to before running out to make my little league game, catching my sister’s dance before scooting out the door.

As it turns out, and maybe had I paid attention when I was younger I would have realized this, but the dance recitals are kind of wonderful.

There’s my daughters dancing, and they enjoy it and they do a great job, so that’s great to see.

And dance is not one of those things I watch and think, “Oh, I can do that.” I am beyond impressed by what everyone is doing on stage in front of a crowd.

And then there’s the fact that you start to get to know the other girls and guys - both the ones in the girls’ dance classes and the older and younger ones who don’t even have classes with them - and you watch them perform year after year and grow and it’s kind of a beautiful thing.

Somehow it has gotten better each year.

It’s a joyful day, and it’s an enjoyable day, year after year.

It’s sometimes an emotional day too.

So here we are, the busy weekend in May when sometimes I get a little choked up watching people dance.

It’s one of my favorite weekends of the year.

What I’ve Been Enjoying

This was fun - I did my first run with the local running group this week. I joined the group after I ran my second Boston Marathon last April…and I just couldn’t get my schedule to sync up with their events. After this year’s Boston Marathon I decided I was going to make more of an effort to overcome that schedule discrepancy. So on Thursday, I went for an evening run with the group and then went to a restaurant with them for some food and refreshments. (And then went straight to pick my daughter up from dance rehearsal…working around the other obligation rather than using it as a reason to not go to the run.)

Notes

*All right. I’ll admit it. I’m getting a little panicky about the Mets. Their recent struggles have been hard to watch…especially when I had such high hopes. But there’s still plenty of time to turn it around and I won’t break character as ‘optimistic Mets fan’ quite yet.

*The runs are slowly increasing. On Saturday morning I figured I would just run for an hour, since I don’t have to set mileage goals quite yet. I ended up running almost 5.5 miles at a nice easy pace. I am so looking forward to getting those runs in early before the heat kicks in this summer. Saturday was a good preview of that.

*Happy Mother’s Day to everyone celebrating today. One of the other nice things about recital weekend is sometimes - like this year - it means I get to spend Mother’s Day with my mom.

*I haven’t been on social media a ton lately but you never know when it will pick up again. You can follow at the links below to keep tabs on me.