I've had a wonderful day, not at all what I expected. Ruth and I talked on the phone at length. She's delightfully excited about preparations for Liam - crib, desired brown corduroy pants, his naming ceremony, the stroller Bob and I ordered for him today. I went with Tracy and K.K. to the dance wear store to get tights and a new pair of pink canvas dance shoes before opening night of The Nutcracker tonight. Then, after the ritual of stitching elastic into the shoes - criss cross at appropriate tightness, K.K. and I baked together until Joanna came to take her to perform. Joanna came back here (much closer to the theater than her house) and had dinner while K.K. danced, and then we had the treat of going and getting her - delighted, composed, so happy after the performance. As we walked out of the theatre lobby K.K. said to me "I can't wait for tomorrow so I can dance again." She has eight Nut Cracker performances in all - one down. Tonight she chose to sleep here so we can do some more crafts and baking before the matinee tomorrow. I should probably sleep so I will want to get up and join her in these activities.

This morning I had interesting thoughts about the characteristics of life (y life) right now - 2008. Sitting at y computer checking email, I took breaks to tie off strands of lemongrass from a friend's garden into knotted bits to use in tea. Clean clothes flapped on the line and another load swirled in the drier. A pot of bean soup simmered on the stove - so much old and so much new in my morning, in my life. I have a 60 year old friend who says that his mother, a child of the Great Depression, was totally enthralled by the conveniences of the fifties and hated old patterns - like hanging clothes, hand washing dishes, or cooking from scratch, because they reminded her of hard, bad times. Now I can wish my Internet connection were faster, and still tie off lemon grass - interesting world.