July 2005
Harry Potter and the Asheville Wolf Pack!
(continued)
Friday -
"National Harry Potter Day" Allan called it, saying the day
felt like a national holiday
The plan: sew the three robes, dye the kids' hair,
go to the store, and nap, all before the 10-to-midnight party
I woke up to the sound of birds -- VERY LOUD morning
birds chirping. I was sleeping in Jameson's back room ("in the
trees" Ginger later said, especially with the birds). When I
opened the door, Simon was standing there -- "Good morning, Marilyn!"
-- with a big smile, especially when I jumped and laughed. Allan
made breakfast (potatoes and carrots, skinless chicken link sausage,
savory biscuits with cheese), while Ginger was on the floor of the
living room, cutting out school robe pattern pieces from the huge roll
of black cloth she'd bought the day before. I offered to help cut
(and ONLY cut -- when Ginger asked the day before, "Do you sew?" I
replied with an emphatic "NO!" I'd attempted it once in my youth,
and watched enough thread bunch and break and tangle and break and
bunch to vow never to get pulled into that again), but Ginger said the
other scissors weren't sharp enough, etc etc -- the basic she had a
thing going thing, that I took to mean (from my own experiences) that
she had to focus on the plan in
her head and my services will be requested when needed. I figured
the best way to help would be to leave her alone, and probably
entertain the kids away.
(She really had a huge
undertaking --
the pattern must have had a dozen pieces, four parts of front and back,
with yokes and sleeves and hood pieces -- times three, of course, in
descending sizes.)(She began with Simon's costume because it was the
bigger pattern size -- she'd be cutting the next size down off the
pattern on Ethan's and then Jameson's -- and if she made any mistakes,
hey, he was playing Ron, and Ron would have a second-hand messed-up
robe.)
Meanwhile, Jameson wished to resume the game she'd
invented with me minutes after I'd arrived yesterday, where I held her
face-to-face and we leaned back and rested our backs on the kitchen
doorframe, cradling her babydoll (named "Jewelry") between us -- quite
the heck on my spine, holding the leaning back 3-year old while
balancing my own back against the frame AND rocking back and forth with
the baby doll in our "laps," and Allan announced oh he had to get a
picture of that, but his videocamera's battery was dead. I'd
planned to pick up a disposable camera by now, but it didn't happen, so
I'd get one when we went to the store later (the house was also in need
of eggs and other things).
After breakfast, I walked with Allan to the backyard
to feed the chickens -- leftovers from the week, saved up. They
loved the blueberry cobbler, which was funny to watch them peck
at. Allan said laughing that ironically their favorite is
scrambled eggs. He also said it was strange to see four chickens
instead of seven now, but four's a good number.
Eventually, Allan withdrew to his office to work on
his book (Ginger said he had to get an extension, and, again, the
deadline's coming up, but he's managed to work from home now and it
hasn't been so bad), promising a very worried Simon that he was
absolutely going to the Harry Potter party that evening. Jameson
requested I help her -- which really meant watch her -- put together
puzzles (and she's quite amazing at it, totally able to put together
her enormous U.S. map puzzle together with no help), in addition to any
other types of playing, and or reading. Ginger was buried in robe
sewing.
Then came the hood controversy.
Looking at the clock (it was after noon) and the
floor (so much cloth uncut for the two other robes) and their hair (yet
to be dyed), I was trying to think of any corner that could be cut
during the day, and losing the hoods seemed ideal. I didn't think
their school robes had them -- Quiddich robes, yes, school robes,
no. Simon, of course, disagreed. I just wanted to make sure
valuable time wasn't being wasted, so I said prove it -- find a shot in
their Harry Potter DVD (Chamber of Secrets) that confirmed hoods.
So he went in search of a hood shot, and Ginger and I both said not to
call me in until he found a picture showing hoods. So he quickly
called me in, and "Well, you can't see from here..." Aigh!
When you have a shot that you CAN see, THEN call me in. Minutes
later, he found it -- dammit, they had hoods. Ah, well.
Ginger still isn't ready to surrender her original
plan, so she still politely refuses my offer to cut the remaining
patterns -- "the pieces of the pattern aren't pinned down... I've got
them over... they're all..." However, some pieces that got
mis-sewn, I'm welcome to pull out that stitching, and that's a big help.
She'd held out as late in the day as possible before
finally letting them watch their Harry Potter DVD to kill some time
before the required nap time (to get them through the party that starts
at 10 tonight), and that turned out not to be the 2-hour DVD-viewing
savior I was expecting, because Simon was back at the sewing table in
no time, asking enthusiastic questions and requests and generally
getting into space where breathing room was required, telling Ethan
"Call me when the Quiddich is on!" and returning when it was
over. He was too excited about his costume for the party, and,
well, who could blame him.
Tick, tick, tick...
All these hours, Ginger worked away, head down in
the black cloth on the floor, on the sewing machine, and on the ironing
board, punctuated by constant interruptions self-made and otherwise
(making tea and toast for everybody, cutting Pink Lady apple slices for
Jameson and Ethan, answering endless questions, requesting attempts at
manners, working in the kitchen on some mystery food), showing amazing
restraint and patience and kindness and keeping well-deserved frantic
outbursts to the quietest "AIGH!!!"s when release was required.
(Also taking moments to smile and enjoy her kids being excited about
getting the robes for their party.) She was working out the last
details on Simon's robe (she forgot about that extra piece to cover the
seams between the hood and the back -- I forget the word for it) when
Simon announced it was 1:30, and suddenly she was letting me cut out
the rest of the cloth for the other two patterns.
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