September was such a busy time! And the madness spirals on!

Day Four of my admitting that I really do have the head cold of the decade.  (Not the century because I haven’t lived that long, at least not in this incarnation. ) I have been held hostage to not keeping up with my usual regimen of supplements.  This summer I was lauding myself all over the place because of how incredibly healthy I had been. 

Then September arrived, - a month in which I worked only four days! – and the regimen went to the dogs.  Lilah came to visit in SF for a week. We played in the city, discovered the mosaic wonder of the Moraga and 17^th St steps, slid down a wondrous concrete slide in the Castro district then ran off to SLO and Morro Bay. We both have wonderful friends and memories of the Central Coast.  On return, I worked three of those four days,  then left for two and a half weeks to play Grammy with my fourth grandchild, Penelope Joyce.  (PJ’s name and nickname both play tribute to my sis and bro.) 

How sweet a newborn is.  And it is such a blessing.  There was a truce that seemed to have been called between all the siblings.  The usual quarreling was there, but lessened as each one gathered around to kiss the baby’s head, ask if they could hold her.  And a new concerted effort came to quiet the household.  “Shh the baby’s sleeping.”

Grammy arrived on PJ’s sixth day of life. I jumped right in, buying groceries, planning meals, cooking, washing dishes, getting the kids to school and picking them up.  The ten minute walk up the hill to school was a great opportunity to quiz Eddy on his multiplication tables.  Sometimes we would do a competition of subtraction so Ava could join in.  She is such a student already.  At seven I suspected she picked up on 70% of the times tables just by osmosis. 

Eddy began ‘fall ball’. At eleven, and only in his second season of baseball, he has found a calling with pitching and I got to watch him strike out eight to nine players per game of the three I attended.  At last he has found a talent; that so cheers me.  All of the Shanks found their passions early on – PJ with his sports, Joyce with her arts, and I with the musical theatre jones – and it was such a deciding factor for all of us.  It seems that for this new generation the passion is only for material things – video games, ipods, things.  So Eddy doesn’t have a great passion yet for baseball, but how terrific to watch him smile as he hits the ball, makes it to first and flashes a real smile of “Wow, I did it well!”  It’s a rarity for me to see.  Hallelujah, there’s hope! And I am so partial to my firstborn grandson. 

Being the domestic for my daughter and her kids is fulfilling. For two weeks anyway.  Hopefully,  Nicole picked up some new and easy cooking ideas.  We found the fresh produce stand right next to Eddy’s baseball field. The Silver Queen corn from Ventura almost rivals the Ohio corn of my youth. (It’s missing the worms, which maybe isn’t such a good thing.)  Nicole discovered the wonder of melted cheese and tomato sandwiches.  All of us had gourmet pizzas concocted with the help of Trader Joe’s.  Easy pot roast, chicken pot pie, chicken soup, stir fried zucchini with tomatoes and garlic and onion.  September is a wonderful time to cook. There is so much bounty from the good earth. 

During four days of Grammy time, I flew back to Illinois to be with my best friend from college days. Birdie had just lost her husband and I knew I had to be there for her. Although I was stretching the finances,  the older I become the more I recognize the value of these dearest old friends.  To honor the heart of those we love,  as each of us moves to transition. And/or as my mom used to say “It’s hell getting’ old, Dee Dee.”   Or was it her musings on becoming a widow and how she no longer had friends like before?  . . . Ah, that’s another blog- 

On my drive back to SF and my work life – absolutely amazing my supervisor let me take off this time -  there was a stop in San Luis for the wedding of my wild and wonderful acting/improv comedy queen LC.  (However was I able to have such an abundance of life in one month – from new birth to death to weddings, etc,  etc,  etc?)LC’s wedding processional was a song she wrote for her husband Rhys when she first met him and knew that he was the one.  There were half a dozen of my theatre buddies there – all 30ish – and that was a sweet reunion. I probably need to throw myself back into that world for the infusion of youth and fun.  I am the ‘grande dame’ in that group. (“How long have you been doing this?” one young director queried me in SLO.  “Hunh?? What?”)  Anyway, LC wore a traditional white gown with her cowboy boots.  All the ladies in waiting donned boots too. This was a joyous celebration.And of course I sang "La Vie en Rose" to a standing ovation.  Love those theatre types!

It was during this whirlwind of being ‘Mom’ again, I lost track of doing my vitamins, juicing, green food supplements.  I returned back to work for one week, then flew down to LA the following weekend to watch my younger daughter in “The Last Five Years.”  I was sneezing prior; I attributed that to allergies.  Keep on pushin!

I rented a car and drove to the 5100 feet of Lake Arrowhead, the performance site, which was exquisite.  I hadn’t really been so high since Boulder days.  Another world, as Lilah put it.  “Things are just different up here, “ she told me,  “that’s why I haven’t been calling you.  No fastfood, one Stater Brothers store.  That’s it.”  Lots of towering pines, circuitous roads, a lack of road signs, changing signs, to get lost in.   Lilah had one day of snow the previous week.  Yeow, what a drive. I was cursing my daughter all the way through the brown, brown, brown and more brown from LAX to Redlands and then up this mountain.  This better be worth it, I groused.  And it was!

The younger Lilah was so very luminous in this two person musical.

The show documents the last five years of a marriage, of a brilliant new writer, on his way up, and his less than confident wife, whose career as an actress is much less promising. I could hardly sleep the night after.  It is a show in which the man usually outshines his spouse.  Jason Robert Brown wrote it about his own marriage after all, so naturally, he was more sympathetic toward himself than his wife.  One story has it that Brown intentionally wrote the female character so his wife could never perform it. The musical chops were too difficult.  I had seen the show many years earlier and remembered not caring much for the wife’s role – too whiny, not sympathetic.

However, this was Lilah’s show. She opens with “I’m still hurting” and it was all I could do to stop from running to the stage to hug her.  The truth, the vulnerability, the emotions and the singing were stunning. Every other song, there she was, capturing our hearts.  I watched my girl, Steve’s girl (She is the synthesis of both) and said, “Yes, she’s got it.”  And I was not the only one who was riveted.  - We will see what tomorrow brings.

And now I am in San Francisco enveloped in thick pea soup early morning fog.  I won’t attempt a swim today – Geez it’s been eight days since my last watery stretch.  I feel cheated, but don’t dare to chance it, too pooped.  It is a wondrous thing to have a life so full – And I didn’t even mention the job, which IS a whole other blog itself.  Xoxoxo  Delilah