Atticus's Latest Adventures

I'm going to go in reverse order just for the heck of it.

THE OPERA
Atticus's class created an opera, "The Legend of the Tumbleweed," through a partnership with Utah Opera, and they performed it at the Rose Wagner Theater downtown as part of a showcase with two other schools.  Here's my favorite part:

Atticus is standing in the back to the right. I wasn't quick enough to catch the previous line, which is, "We are here now safe and sound. In this cave we will never be found." See, the peaceful Sekoa tribe had just begun their spring festival to celebrate the flowers blooming in the desert when the shaman's evil twin brother, Black Elk, comes and tries to throw down. He gets banished, but the tribe apparently still feels threatened, because they decide to seek shelter in a cave. And then I guess there's a storm? Anyway, it's pretty dramatic.

This is the 5th year this teacher has done an opera as part of a unit on legends and storytelling. She gives the class the basic characters and rules (setting, conflict, resolution), and each child writes his or her own legend. She then took something from each story and created the libretto for the opera. I think Atticus's contribution was a cliff. His story included the chief getting poisoned and someone having to climb the cliff to get a flower that would provide the antidote. Which is certainly more dramatic than Mia and her mother getting lost in a storm, but who am I to judge?

Anyway, the performance was a really Big Deal, and even though Atticus was nervous and said he didn't want to perform downtown because he felt "too important" on stage, he had a fantastic time. It didn't hurt that the class and families met at a restaurant next to the theater beforehand for dinner. It was total pandemonium, but the kids had a great time, and I finally got to talk shout across the table to the mom of the kid in his class who lives in our neighborhood.

My sister Erin came, which was a treat for Atticus. When the performers came off the stage to give flowers to the audience, he gave his to her.

COMIC CON
James and Atticus went to Comic Con last weekend, and Atticus spent Saturday as Link. He bought the Master Sword on Friday, so he felt his costume was complete. He debated about getting the shield but decided he didn't want to carry it around.

They saw who they wanted to, and Atticus got to ask the creators of Rogue One why everyone had to die at the end, and they actually had an answer: they actually filmed a version of the ending where the girl gets away, but the writers insisted that at the end of Episode 4, there's a medal ceremony for everyone who helped destroy the Death Star, and no one from Rogue One was there. So they clearly had to have not survived. Makes sense, I guess.

THE HAIR

Atticus has reached the age where it's time to figure out who he is as an individual. He's concerned about what's mature, what's cool. And, happily, he's not too affected by what his peers think. For a couple weeks he wore a green bucket hat we found when cleaning out his closet. It didn't go with anything he wore, but it had skulls on it, so it was cool. I was happy to see that go, especially since it covered his eyes and ears halfway, and he's already not great at listening and watching where he's going.

Anyway, the latest manifestation is his hair. We had just gotten him a really nice looking haircut, where it was still long on top and the bangs framed his right eye so nicely. A week later he decided to part it the other direction, creating a messy mop with weird long bits covering his left ear. And the bangs flipped up. Goodness, he loves that flip:

He had to document it in about 20 photos on my phone. It's serious business.

He asked what we thought, and we told him we thought it looked dumb, but it's his head, so it's up to him. That's been my approach to most things like this: I'll tell you honestly what I think, but the decision is up to you. I did ask him to make one compromise and comb it the other way for church. Deal.

It's been so interesting to watch this boy grow up. I look forward to many years of figuring him out.

A Very Happy Birthday

Atticus and I both had birthdays this past week. We both got bikes:

And they both happen to be green. And the weather has been lovely enough to go on a couple longer rides along the Jordan River Parkway. I'm actually starting to discover my neighborhood.

Saturday was my birthday, and it was probably the best birthday I've had in quite a while.

It started with morning snuggle time with James. And no, that's not a euphemism for anything, it's just what it sounds like. In the early years of our marriage, when the last person got home from work, one of us would yell "snuggle call!" and we'd go jump on the bed and snuggle and talk about nothing in particular while listening to records on James's turntable, usually Leonard Cohen or side B of Abbey Road or maybe Johnny Cash's new stuff. Sometimes it was for a few minutes, sometimes it was a couple hours. It was my favorite part of the day. But life gets more complicated and eventually the turntable got moved to another room and snuggle time fell by the wayside. 

So I was thrilled to bring it back Saturday. The turntable is still downstairs, but I found Songs from a Room on Spotify and played it on my iPad. Atticus joined us for a few minutes but then went off to watch animé in the living room. It was just like the old days, except now we had iPads.

Eventually it was time to get up, and I put on my favorite outfit and went to a friend's Lula Roe party to exchange a shirt. I don't like most of their patterns, but there's one style of skirt I like and I found it in a cute pattern in my size. Snagged it. Wore it to church Sunday and to work Monday and felt awesome. Happy birthday to me!

Next was brunch at Les Madeleines. I love brunch. This was especially tasty. I had a Spanish-themed open-face sandwich with Serrano ham, manchego cheese, grilled asparagus, and a medium-cooked egg. With a green salad and a buttery pastry on the side. Atticus needed some help finishing his french toast, so I *had* to eat a piece of cinnamon swirl bread soaked in an orange custard. 

Then it was Atticus's turn. We needed to find him a bike. We had purchased my bike the night before (on clearance for half the price I was prepared to pay!!), and he'd fallen in love with a $300 mountain bike. I can't bring myself to spend that much on a bike he's going to outgrow in a few years, so we had to find an alternative. I wasn't sure we were going to make it--we went to three stores with no success and a few tears--when finally we found the green bike. It wasn't the color he hoped for, but it's the right size and style and we could take it home that day. Sold!

We went to couple bakeries to find me a birthday cake, then came home and rested for a bit. Then came the big event: James had found out that the Pioneer Theater Company was performing Chess, so he bought tickets. I love this man. When I was in college, a BYU student group performed Chess in a small theater-in-the-round. I'd never heard of it, just went with friends, but I fell in love. Went back a second time, then went back and hovered outside the door to see if they'd let me in during intermission. They did. Wore out the soundtrack. I remember lamenting with my sister Susan that it probably wouldn't be performed professionally anymore because the Cold War is over and stories about Russian defectors and the KGB are kind of passé. Then Josh Groban did a concert version for PBS. He did a good job, but, well, it's Josh Groban, and he'll never be Anatoly. So I was thrilled to see it here.

I was a little nervous when I learned that it would also be a concert performance, but they still did quite a bit of staging and sets, even though the performers carried their scripts and music with them. A couple flubbed lines, but otherwise unnoticeable. Except when Florence is singing her guts out about how angry she is, and I expect her to throw that binder at Freddy, and she doesn't because it's not actually a prop. Oh, and a guy in the chorus looked just like my brother-in-law Thaddeus, especially in the "One Night in Bangkok" number. I was mad he hadn't told me he was in town, but of course it wasn't him. He would have been just as fabulous, I'm sure. :)

Afterward we picked up Atticus from my friend's house and went home to crash. I'm still not used to the idea of being 44, but my birthday kind of makes up for it.

Atticus's birthday was Tuesday. It's hard to do much on a school day, but he made sure to do extra homework on Monday so he could skip it on Tuesday. He opened his presents when he got home: Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time video game from us (plus the bike), and the Ocarina of Time books from Grandma and Grandpa. He got money from Nana and Grandpa Clarence, and he plans to spend it on Link's master sword at Comic Con this weekend. When this boy likes something, he goes all in. He got to choose dinner, so we went to a Chinese buffet and then to Baskin Robbins for dessert. Extra snuggles at bedtime. 

He's going to have a friend party in a couple weeks, so it feels like we haven't really celebrated yet. He wants to have it at our house, which is nice in a way, but then I look at how much we need to do to make our backyard presentable, and I get a little daunted. But it's not about impressing anyone, right? It's about giving 8 kids a fun afternoon, and I can't imagine they care about last year's leaves piled up against the fence. They just want to run around and smack a piñata and eat cake. I can do that. We may break out the disco ball and let them dance in the basement. We'll see. 

We Bennetts know how to party.

James has a new car!

I was waiting to get a picture of James next to his new car, but I'm really bad at taking pictures, so if you want to hear from me you'll have to get used to not seeing many photos. Sorry. This happened in January.

We have finally replaced James's 1997 Geo Prism. It was a good car that served us well. But it wasn't going to pass inspection this year, and we really didn't want to put more money into it.

The new one is a 2014 Hyundai Elantra with 31K miles on it. It has all sorts of bells and whistles that the Prism didn't, like *gasp* a CD player! And cruise control! We will most likely drive this car on our longer road trips now that my Subaru has more than 100K miles.

I have to say it will take me some time to get used to having a blue car. My family has always favored red cars. Or green. In high school I drove a neon green Ford Fiesta, and our first Subaru was a bright sage-y green. I miss those cars...

The only blue car I've ever driven was an ancient tank of a Crown Victoria. I loved that car. It laughed at the snow, and the seats were so plush and comfy. I remember listening to the Hunchback of Notre Dame soundtrack with my sister Susan, and we both yelled "SANCTUARY!!" at the right time in the song. Of course that car almost died on Susan, overheating on every hill between Idaho Falls and Salt Lake. But the trip wasn't a total loss, because she ended up marrying the guy she went to see. So yeah, it was a good car.

I hope this blue car brings us at least as many happy memories.