Loren's choir concert

Granite Falls School District & the Everett Chorale
present
"Why We Sing"
First Annual All-City Choir Concert

Granite Falls High School
Granite Falls, WA
April 15, 2010

1 - Ah, Robyn
2 - Children of Peace
3 - Vocalise

Diana Lawrence, Director
Patti McElroy, piano
Emilie Barker, flute

GFHS Choraliers:
Loren Pelkey, Parker Aamold, Alexis Bailey, Emilie Barker, Sierra Barker, Rochelle
Baron, Kimberly Bray, Allie Chadwick, Nik Cole, Ashlee Cortez, Alexis Irvin,
Semira Kern, Nathan Lynn, Maxx Marker, Desi Nease, Shannon Ozog, Mercedes
Pryor, Allyssa Puett, Brenda Ramirez, Amanda Ray, Emily Richbourg, Kelsey
Salsgiver, Lupe Sanchez-Reynoso, Catie Schusted, Mikyla Sears, Shantae Smith-
Roberts, Brad Somes, Kevin Sprague, Maria Stadler, Heidi Thayer, Caroline Todd,
Alysa Turner, Sarah Turner, Kelsey Wesson, Madelyn Winter

OK, it's plenty late

i've been feeling a little anxious lately...prob'ly has something to do with Loren being here for so long and then not being here, and then maybe or maybe not coming back tomorrow, as planned. i think it would be a little naive not to think stressors like these affect me; they do, i'm just a little dense like that...they're more of a low, dull ache than a sharp pain.

predictably, his mother is leaning on him to come back after the weekend. this seems contrary to his wishes, and if he wants to stay, he's going to. i'll be quite disappointed if he doesn't. her reasoning is (unsurprisingly) that she hasn't seen him in 9 weeks, to which i say, "tough, that doesn't even compare to 5 months." that's some irrefutable logic right there, and establishing the pattern of his spending alternate weeks at alternate houses now greatly increases the odds that it will stick. i'm sure she thinks if she subverts it now, she "wins". that's by no means a "win" for Loren. he's not blind to what she's doing, especially not this time, but it's obvious he feels the pressure. the trick for me is encouraging him to do what he's said he wants to do, and, admittedly, what i would be very pleased if he did, without putting the kind of pressure on him that his mother is. i mean, she hollered from across the room, "he's coming back on Sunday," and he said he wasn't, and she said he was, and he stuck to his guns through 5 rounds of that before walking away from the "you are" / "no, i'm not".

more of the same, really...typical selfishness on her part. really hoping this one goes my way. i'm sure it's the best thing for him, and i want to see him get what he wants- especially since it runs counter to what she wants. the woman's gotten her own way with no regard for what's good for anyone else for far too long, and i'm all for Loren showing some independent judgment and setting his own terms irrespective of his mom's manipulations.

Loren told me recently that she told him, in 7th grade, when he was seriously considering trying out an alternating week on/week off arrangement, that she wouldn't let that happen. he said she told him if he did that she'd refuse to let him spend his "mom" week at her house, only alternating weekends. WTF?! if that's not a threat of abandonment (and i can tell you for SURE he took it that way, from the way he told me about this) i don't know what is.

so i told him to call her bluff; she's not going to turn down time he'll spend with her (and time she can use to try to work her coercive magic to upset the apple cart). cutting off her nose to spite her own face is not in her bag of tricks. even if she did initially refuse his "mom" week, i'm absolutely sure she'd relent after a couple weeks of only seeing him on the weekends.

that's more than enough about that.

it was really interesting talking to him on the phone this (last!) evening. i haven't heard that tone of voice from him in months. he really becomes a different person in different environments, and the change isn't hard to see. i can't even really imagine what it would be like- what he would be like- if his parents weren't divorced. i'm sure he'd be different, i just can't imagine how so.

guess that's all i've got to say; more than i intended, really. well past time to crash for a few hours.

ok, it works.

not sure if i'm sold on the method, though. overall it's less click-intensive than meandering through the blogger.com logon & interface labyrinth...i'll try it again next time. but since i'm already here....

one of these years i'll get around to updating the other pages of this blog, but not tonight.

another weekend in the books. no shortage of chores for me yesterday, followed by a great salmon dinner at Nichole's, to which everyone but Loren made it out. nice to see everyone; i haven't seen any of the Sargent clan for nearly two months. my nephews are getting big!

i suppose it's only fitting i mention Harley's condition deteriorated last week and Jason & Melissa relucantly put him down. i suppose the only good thing to say about that is he's not suffering, and as hard as it is to have your dog put to sleep, it's surely much harder to watch him struggle and decline. i'm gonna miss Harley, he seemed to like me almost as much as i liked him, and he was a great dog.

Dozer was a hit for the Sargent boys last night- they sure love dogs. they asked me where Chowder was, but i was pretty sure Dozer would make an appearance, so i let him ride out the evening at home.

my neighbor Bruce had an extra (season) ticket for the Seahawks regular season opener today, and invited me along. he likes to take the train, so we did, a first for me. the train's clean, but probably not as fast as driving- especially if you get downtown somewhat early, know where to find parking, and know the right way to get to the freeway afterward. most people make the mistake of trying to get on the freeway as quickly as possible, creating a bit of a backup along the two southernmost on-ramps north of the stadium; pass those two up and head a few blocks north and you're in front of all those brake lights.

i checked the fares and timetables while i was on the train to get an idea of what it would be like to commute to work on it- not going to happen. even if it were cheaper or quicker, i just like having my truck with me. it's pretty easy to get used to having wheels at your disposal.

anyway, the Seahawks win at home; they looked pretty rusty in the 1st quarter, but started to get it together late in the 2nd, and looked pretty good in the 3rd. i think the final was 20-6; the Bucs never made a touchdown and never scored after the 1st quarter...at least as of the time i left, with about a minute and half left in regulation. ran into Jeff & Dean's little brother on the way out of the stadium; he tells me Jeff recently moved back from Montana, to Mountlake Terrace, and that Dean's flying solo again, this time living off of Olympic View Drive in the Perrinville neighborhood, over by Meadowdale Beach. for the life of me i simply cannot remember their little bro's name, which is bugging the crap outta me. real nice guy; totally didn't recognize him at first since he's got a thick goatee now. he saw me, actually, and called my name a couple times- i looked right at him and didn't recognize him before realizing who he was. always khoul to run into khoul people you haven't seen for a long time.

came home and caught the night game, the first Sunday Night game of the regular season. for me (as of last year) Sunday is the new Monday, since Al Michaels (my favorite) and John Madden (my other favorite) host that show. the Giants put up a good fight, but 3 starters and 1 backup guy got injured, and the Cowboys played pretty well (with Wade Phillips at the helm for his first regular season game) and chalked up their first W. Eli Manning went out in the 4th quarter with a "bruised" right shoulder, and they lost their starting running back, so welcome to the War of Attrition. not that i'm particularly a Giants fan...

so, two trips to Qwest Field under my belt this year, both Ws. gotta like that.

back to work tomorrow, with boats moving in for the Boats Afloat show, and a truck heading east to retrieve gear from the Gorge. i forgot to grab Jason's CDs to burn over the weekend, maybe that'll take up some of my evening time over the week this week...assuming i actually have any free time this week. i know now, that until the end of August, working where i work, i'm going to spend the majority of my time working and commuting. the sad part of that is, i think with just a little more organization and planning (admittedly not always possible due to lack of necessary information in advance) things would move a lot more smoothly there. i have a much better idea of what to expect in the course of a summer next time around.

Loren's started 9th grade...hardly seems possible. i'm going to turn around and he's gonna be all grown up, and i'm gonna wonder what the hell happened to the last twenty years. he seems to like his teachers alright, so far, which isn't altogether too surprising considering they haven't had the kids do any real work yet, and i think he's enjoying the difference in the atmosphere. he mentioned that he was considering playing basketball and baseball, and i told him for the 1,00th time that i totally encourage him to play any sports...he mentioned tennis, which would be interesting. i love racquet sports. told him again i think he's a natural for football, but the question is whether or not he's aggressive enough. personally, i think that's a long shot for him (he's just WAY easygoing) but you never know....when he gets a little hair on his chin he might surprise the hell out of everyone and become Captain Testosterone.

alright that's it for me, i'm not particularly inspired tonight.

another weekend almost gone

Loren's down for the night. we dug into Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows a bit more this evening, played some darts and chess this afternoon, and went to pick up a C. S. Lewis book (Out of the Silent Planet) which he was assigned to read over the summer, for a 200 question multiple-choice test in store for all the incoming 9th grade advanced-placement English students. we got some laundry done, and the dishes, and ignored some other chores that failed to demand loudly enough for our attention. yesterday we played racquetball in the morning, and followed it up with a short visit to my folks' house, where i took one of their old teak & leather wooden chairs (with its matching footstool) off their hands. it's a nice chair, and quite comfortable, but i don't exactly have a place for it...maybe i'll get to figuring that out this week. we also watched our requisite Star Trek DVDs (8 episodes of Voyager over the course of the week) and squeezed in the newly-released animated Dr. Strange video yesterday, as well as playing some of Loren's newly-exchanged and now-functional Tony Hawk: Project 8 video game. still fun stuff. we got in a few episodes of DBZ (the end of the Frieza or Namek saga...not sure which, but we left off with the episode where Frieza gets diced by his own power disc attack) over broiled chicken with rice and peas for dinner, and this is all- i'm quite certain- terribly fascinating.

so. nothing too out of the ordinary, but you won't find me complaining over having the opportunity to spend two uninterrupted days with m'boy. tomorrow he's back to his mom's and i hunker down for another week of work. the boss suggested i take a day off this week, possibly Friday, which would make for a 3-day weekend upcoming....might be nice. been working a lot of hours lately, and there's no shortage of household business to take care of.

s'pose that's all i got for the moment. PEACE