Lions and Crows and Boyfriends, Oh My!

Both kids were cast! Yippee!

Bear, of course IS The Lion. He went into this wanting that part, owning that part, and according to his retelling of the audition and call backs, he worked hard to get it. Tessie didn't get the Addaperle part but she did get the part of one of The Crows - the evil comedic ensemble that taunt The Scarecrow. Both kids are thrilled with their parts. Jarrod's is pretty big, with a solo and a duet where he has to hit a high C. Tessie's will be determined through rehearsals depending on how much personality she puts into it. This part is totally her though. It has that Emo/Scene/HipHop kind of feel. We've got a blissful two weeks now, until rehearsals start up.

We opened the pool earlier this week. It takes about 5 or 6 days for it to go from brackish brown to sparkling blue. We're just about there, so hopefully it will be swimable for the long holiday weekend.... if only the weather would cooperate.

It has been a REALLY busy week for me, and I'm really happy with that. Since I started this new part time job, of course, wouldn't you know, real estate is starting to pick up too! Yesterday, for instance - I showed a candidate for hire as a professor around town for a couple of hours starting at 8, then went right to the DFS job until 6. While I was there, a woman called my cell, referred by a mutual acquaintance and I'm going to show her houses this weekend. When I was done at DFS, I hightailed it back to the North side of town to list a house! Whew! Today I started at DFS at 8, will be here til 3 and then have to hightail it over to my real estate office to turn in the listing before the 4:00 deadline!

Downtown Dad and Bearly are going to take off this afternoon for Iowa. DD's mom is coming up from Branson to attend her all-school reunion in Woodbine, so DD and Bear are going to join them and do a little genealogy research on the way.

In other news, (shhhhhhhh) Tessie has a boyfriend! His name is Vince. This has been a long time coming, and it was interesting to watch the adolescent dance of 'he/she likes me, he/she likes me not.' Vince is a friend of Bear's, and also a cast member of High School Musical, and, sang a lovely duet with Tessie in the spring show "All I Needed to Know I Learned In Kindergarten" no wonder there was so much chemistry there! DD and I met Vince's parents before we even knew who he was during all of our fundraisers. They, the parents are one of the "26 parents" out of the group of 60 who actually participate and do work (and go to "choir practice" afterward), and it's been fun to get to know them because they are a lot like DD and me.

I'm absolutely thrilled about this, but would never have expected it even three months ago. Tessie's taste in boys, up until now, has tended to run toward the dangerous side. She went through a (hormonally induced) week of hating us and texting non stop with an 18 year old, homeless, drop out, which scared the bejiggers out of us. She knew we wouldn't approve, and we absolutely didn't, and told her that. I honestly think she was befriending him - much like bringing home a stray cat, rather than having any romantic interest. We did come home earlier than expected one evening and found them talking outside in the street. She introduced him, but he vanished into the night almost immediately afterwards. That blew over about as quickly as it blew in - thankfully. Last week, a couple of dangerous looking boys rang the doorbell at 7:30 on a Saturday morning asking for Tess. It looked to me like they were high, and when I told them that she was still asleep, they almost demanded I go wake her up. That brought out the mother bear in me and I sent them packing with a few choice words. They were back later and got the same from DD this time. Tessie only knows them through a class they have together and explained that one of them liked her, but the feeling was definately NOT mutual. She told them that their behavior was not appreciated and not to come back. So you can see why I am thrilled at the prospect of Vince, who is a very normal, very involved theatre kid, with parents I know!