Oui!!!

Friday, October 25, 2024

Keith got a front door notification (the front door pings his phone when someone is there) (usually it is a squirrel) and looked to see three boys with rakes. I said run and get them. I like when people rake for me. (It has never happened before, but I still hobbled a little by my ankle and really don’t want to hurt it again, but those leafs are out there…)

He came back and said they had gone to the neighbors’. I asked if he chased them. He looked at me in a squinty way. I said go chase them. He said okay. They had moved on to the next house by then. I ran upstairs to change from sleeping clothes to going to a show clothes, because we needed to leave within the next 15 minutes. When I looked out the window, Keith was NOT chasing them. He was getting the mail. I quickly changed so I could chase them.

When I came down, he had them wrangled up at the foot of the driveway. They wanted $20 for rake and bag the front yard. Yes!! Please!! I looked at one kid (high school sized) and asked if I knew him from Woodbury Middle school. He said no, high school. I said before – had he gone there? He said no, he is from Belgium. Another chimed in that he was from France. The other kid was from the neighborhood (but I didn’t recognize him).

We asked if they wanted to do more than the front yard – for more money, of course. They were enthusiastic. We took them to the back yard and they (or at least two of them) gasped something in French. Our backyard is quite leafy. They were not deterred. They kept saying, “We will do this!” Keith got them the monster yard bag, which they thought was great (because it is) and whispered about how much easier it would be to load it and dump than filling paper bags. (YES! It is)

We had to go. We told them they could come back tomorrow or start tonight. They wanted to start. The front door told Keith that they left a note on the door about 7:00 – fully dark – that they would be back at 9 tomorrow.

When we pulled in after the play, my first thought was that someone had stolen our car because the driveway looked bizarrely empty. It had had a pile of leaves 4 feet deep in front of half of the garage (which the wind brings and leaves every fall. It’s convenient, and yet not) and now it was a completely clean driveway. No car had been there to steal, so that was a silly thing to think.

The play we saw was called Log Kya Kahenge, meaning what would people think? It was about South Asian culture in America. The story was about a couple who had emigrated from India as young adults now with two adult daughters, and how the idea of always doing what is right for everyone else and trying to keep everyone else happy really wears on your mental health. It was a world premiere, but I can’t say if it was written locally. The program is in the car and I am too comfy to go get it.

The play itself was a little uneven in its flow and some parts felt kinda trite, but overall was very good. As we talked about it, we agreed that one of the lead characters was not a very good actress and she, unfortunately, made the parts feel awkward. The rest of the cast was so much better and their sections of the show felt so much more real. The father stole the show with his comedic take on things, and the sister was so good that I forgot that it was a play and she wasn’t just showing us her life. The big revenge on the bad people at work scene was disappointing. The author needed to watch Pretty Woman to see how to take ’em down simply and thoroughly (Mistake. Big mistake).

That is enough for now. I would love to tell you about my day at school, because it was a roller coaster ride of success and blaaaaah. Maybe tomorrow. 🙂