Gotta Dance

I drove north to attend a 3 year old's dance recital and a 20 something's graduation picnic, and to spend time with most of my family. What a great feeling to drive that 400 miles to Berkeley after sitting in the passenger seat for 11 weeks. For some reason, the traffic seemed much lighter than usual.







We attended Maggie's recital first. We sat through 3 pages of dances. The many girls and 4 boys were cute. Nobody knew how to dance. Well, maybe a couple. They were fun to watch. The choreography, done by the adults of course, was the most interesting thing to see. Lots of hip waggling and lying on the floor waggling feet. What would I have done with several novices? Probably nothing too different. Our little dancer had a ball. She didn't care how she did. She had a cute little costume and an opportunity to strut her stuff in front of an adoring crowd. The crowd was adoring their own little darlings, but that didn't seem to make a difference. We met on the lawn outside the auditorium. Karen, Peter and I got a moment to appreciate our little dancer. Then Natalie and Kevin got their turn. Maggie is in love with bouquets. This event was made for her.


After a brief stop at Kevin and Natalie's, we went to a picnic celebrating Cathie's impending graduation. She has earned her Master's degree in Marriage and Family Counseling. As my many friends with this degree know, this is just the beginning. There are lots of hours to put in to reach her final reward. Cathie is a very hard working woman. I think she will thrive with this challenge. She is off to Mexico next to work on her Spanish for a month. Another challenge that she will probably ace. Her brothers and their wives were there. Jeff and Sandi and Sandi's sister and brother-in-law came up from San Diego. And masses of Cathie's friends. It was good to see all these folks honoring Cathie for her accomplishments.

We had a good time at the picnic and decided to carry it on the next day at Karen's. Karen and Peter were flying to Alaska the next day, so we decided to just have breads, meats and cheeses with some interesting accompaniments. The idea was to have little fuss so Karen wouldn't work herself too hard. She had clean-up, which is always difficult after I cook or "prepare."
We had a good time anyway. Nephews Chris and girlfriend Gabriella are on the left, Mark is hiding behind Trina. It isn't that we've waited forever for these young men to find women who complete their lives. We are hoping that these are the two, because we really like them.

And Maggie worked her magic on all of us.