So, Kaylee.
Thursday night was auditions. I took her there at 8:45 pm, and waited in the parking lot for an hour for her to get done. I spent most of that time praying. I felt in part silly praying so hard for her to be calm, for her to do her best, for her to be focused, to perform as well as she's practiced. I didn't pray for her to "get in", I prayed for her to do her best, and wherever the chips fall from there would be fair and right. I found out later that's pretty much what everyone else was praying for too. We figure God's up there going "All these things I have going on up here, I HEAR you people, now HUSH!" ;)
She came out of the audition, and said "I nailed it, Mom." Whew. Step one out of the way. If she didn't get in, it wouldn't be because she botched up the audition. She worked, she prepared, she practiced, and she performed under pressure, and that is all anyone can do.
Friday was a very long day. She had to wait until after school to find out the results. During the morning, she found out that the choir director was still stewing over three slots and the list wasn't even finalized yet. We texted back and forth a few times, with some nerves. I wasn't able to focus very well on other stuff, even. Finally when school was about over, I drove over (early because I couldn't sit at home any more), and stopped at the ice cream place and picked up some mint chocolate chip. We'd talked about how I'd have ice cream when I picked her up, and it would either be celebratory or consoling. She sent me a message that someone was going to have a photo of the list early, and should she look early or wait like she was supposed to. She decided to wait. The bell rang, and some of her friends had not waited. She didn't get three steps down the hall before one of her friends ran after her yelling "KAYLEE, YOU MADE IT!!" Another friend came running up and hugged her with a congratulations, a third came up and said "You're a Soprano!" She never made it down to the list before people were telling her left and right. She took a photo of the list for her own personal enjoyment, and then sent out texts to me, Steve, her voice teacher, her grandparents, everyone she could think of. She got in the car and was eating her ice cream, and "ding", she was notified that "Encore 2017-2018 is now following you on Twitter" and she was tagged in an Encore post. Those people work FAST on social media. She barely got to the car before she was added as one of the group. She's so excited. She's so thrilled. There are a few positives she's looking forward to. Now that she's in the group, she never has to audition for the group again for real. She won't be kicked out unless she does something awful. She has a big likelihood of getting a good role in upcoming musicals. She'll always be automatically "in" on dancing scenes like the ballroom scene. The group is very close, and they're already quite of few of them her friends, so she's going to have a fun, social time with it. And she gets to call the choir director by "Aunt Carol", something only this group does. She still randomly comes up to me and says "Hey Mom. I got into Encore." It was one of her best days. She is a bit of an inspiration to me and doesn't really know it. She puts herself out there, pushes, tries, gets rejected, tries harder, and achieves most of what she aims at. A girl who wouldn't sing in the car in front of her mom stands in front of a dozen of her peers and is being judged and graded for her worth to be in their group. Teachers, parents, and students. I don't think I could have done that. I wouldn't want to do it today. I don't much want to do this recital where I have to play in front of people. Unless I still have enough time to get it right. But man, if she can put herself out there, I can't be the one to chicken out. Especially since she thinks I'm not scared of much of anything. She's right in a way, I'm not scared of a lot...but public performance and potential humiliation is not real high up on my list of things that excite me. ;)
This morning Steve was up super early and out to the airport by 7. I was out there by 8. Steve T grilled up an Oshkosh style breakfast, bacon and eggs and pancakes and omelets and hash browns and OJ and milk and coffee and...deeeelicious. We hosted the B2OSH (Bonanzas to Oshkosh) formation clinic. They had about 9 people who were scheduled to come, but all but 3 ended up unable to make it. John let me borrow his Bonanza, so I was a 4th. The first flight we did two two-ships. New guy and Glenn, and me and Dave. New guy had flown formation for one day a year ago. I hadn't flown formation in 8 months, had never flown formation in the Bonanza, and hadn't flown this Bonanza except one time a year ago when I brought it back from California. Dave had just bought a Baron and had never flown formation with it. So everybody but Glenn was a newbie of sorts. The day progressed great. New guy got so good he didn't need a safety pilot any more. I figured out the vernier throttle and turbocharged engine having a little lag time by the end, was a little rusty at first on station keeping and figuring out stuff, but nailed both my rejoins, and the element takeoff and landing. What that means is the two of us took off side by side together, and landed together, me on the left side of the runway, him on the right side of the runway, and never the two shall cross their lines. :) What was really funny though, was the plane was so unfamiliar to me, I couldn't find the fuel pump. I couldn't find the trim wheel. I couldn't find the fuel selector. These things were all hidden and in awkward positions. The fuel selector and the fuel pump I found while I was on the ground prior to starting up, so I'd be ready. The gear, which is hidden behind a post, I found by feel repeatedly until I knew I could pull it without looking down at it. I forgot about the trim wheel. On take off, it pitched up pretty hard, and I couldn't hardly push it down enough, and I couldn't find the manual wheel. Finally I got it all down. The second flight of the day I was comfortable with the plane and everything went pretty well. It was fun.
Kaylee texted me "Did you just fly over our house? I saw you." I said yes, and she said "Are you texting and flying??" I said no, I'd just landed. I do text and fly, but not in the middle of a 4-ship formation. lol Later she said she heard us and went running outside and saw us changing positions in the formation.
When I walked in the door, Kaylee said "I can always tell when you've been flying. Like today. When you walked in, your hair was kind of messy and you were happy."
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