May.09.02

My Mom called this morning, right before I had breakfast. I'm still not sure of her initial reason for calling, but the call turned out to be perfectly timed. Just after she said hi and we chit-chatted for a minute, she told me to hang on, the mail lady was at the door. Suddenly I realized that probably the mail lady was beckoning my Mom to come to claim the Mother's Day package I mailed to her. She was really excited when she got back on the phone, crowing that she was now holding a package from her daughter! Crazy coincidence. She opened it while on the phone, which was nice. It was like I was there while she perused the fancy tea, soap, and bottle of wine I sent her. Mom has always been so good at ooh-ing and ah-ing over the gifts I give her, as any good mom should. I'm her only child, so I've always been her center of attention. Looking back on my life, that has been good and bad. But I love my Mom. She's a sweetheart.

The other night, C. and I went out to a performance by a group called Barrel of Monkeys. The deal is, these performers do residencies in Chicago Public Schools, helping 3rd and 4th grade kids to learn creative writing. Then, at the end of the residencies, the actors take the kids' stories and make them into comedy skits. It sounded kind of cheesy when our friends told us about it, but it was actually completely hilarious! Some of the stories were so outlandish and nonsensical--The actors did a great job of acting them out, without making fun of the kids' writing, but making it funny in a way that anyone could enjoy. I don't think I stopped smiling for the whole hour. I told C. later that if that show were on TV, I would never miss it.

We did make the mistake of sitting right in the front row, which was a bit scary since the performance space was small and they were almost in our laps. Occasionally, the actors' singing and cavorting was so noisy I could feel the baby freaking out a little inside my belly. He/she was really active the whole time, and at first it felt kind of eerie, but after awhile I just crossed my arms over my middle and enjoyed the wigglings. Neat!

Anyway, if you live in Chicago and have the time, check out this show. They perform at the Neo-Futurarium, or whatever it's called, at Foster and Ashland. Really super-funny stuff.

It's been ages since we did anything like that. We really don't go to rock shows these days, and I realized after seeing this show that I miss being entertained by a live performance, musical or not. I have to get out more!

**And this just in!** Toothbrush sent me a postcard from Florida! She rocks so hard.

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