So, Friday morning 5:30 am I woke up ready once again for boot camp. I head out in the dawn's nearly light for class as usual and noticed the front left tire on my car was low so I stopped for air but quickly realized this tire was nearly flat and air was not helping. Fortunately, the tire lasted long enough for me to get to the tire shop for repair and was fixed in time to get my girl and two pals to swim class. Notice, I'm not interjecting this bit of text with a photo of my girl swimming or diving. More on that later. I can say that these swim lessons were well worth the investment. Two weeks, or ten consecutive weekdays of lessons grew my girl's swimming skills to a new level and her love for swimming even more. She learned to dive from the side of the pool and has the beginnings of a dive from the board.Her strokes are getting stronger by the day.
Friday continued to be a whirlwind of a day. Two birthday parties for my girl,and then off to a local bluegrass festival for great music, camping, dancing and hoola hooping fun. The music, for the most part local to our area is top notch. If you are a fan of bluegrass, americana, or alt-country and a casual, chilled out good time then this is the festival for you. Of the six or seven years we've been going to the Jamboree, the number of people attending has definitely increased but the sweetness and down-home feeling has remained. We set up camp near our friends in the more kid-friendly area and got right to the good music. The kids can run free enough here and still be in their mama (and/or papa's) eye view. My girl and her dear pal danced and hoola hooped for hours on their own and along side their mamas. And for the first night's highlights, two bands stand out for me: "Larry Yes" and "Chuckanut Drive" . See them if they come to a town near you or for that matter your town.
Friday as I might be inferring was one of those full days though fun there wasn't a spare minute. In between swimming and birthday parties, we packed the car with our camping gear, hoola hoops, food and whatever else we thought we'd need for one night of bluegrass fun. Like a camera which I used right away when we got to the festival. Snapping some loveliness in the way of ethereal, henna-like face painting on our sweet girls, and a little hoola hoopin and square dancing fun.
I put the camera away while we set up camp. After setting up the tent and our slumber spots for the night, I head back to the music. I reached for my camera in my left-hand pocket to snap some more pictures of the festival in action and alas no camera. What? Huh? I must have dropped it somewhere right? In the car, in the camping box. In the field between the car and our tent site. Somewhere. I went searching, digging, asking....no camera. I figured if someone picked up my little pocket of digital fun he/she would see pictures of kids and turn the dang thing into lost and found. Remember, I did say this festival was all about sweetness.
I figured the camera as lost not stolen. Due to me not focusing. In all the set-up, I obviously set the camera down somewhere in the trenches of my car where surely it will be found. Because I didn't quite trust myself to not lose something else like um my wallet, I locked that in my glove box. More like shoved it in and turned the key.
Despite a lost camera, that yes I shed a few tears over, I had a great night. I cried from exhaustion, feeling run down and yes for sure sad about the potentially lost pictures from the day . You know what? It kind of felt good to cry for a minute or five . Once I got that out of my system, I stepped right up in front of Chuckanut Drive and danced hard. I think I danced at least some of my cryin away.
The next morning feeling less than refreshed but ready for a new day, I went to my glove box to fetch my wallet to buy some $1 coffee. Glove box locked. Wallet inside. Safe and sound. So safe in fact, that even I couldn't get my wallet. The key wouldn't turn. Now I knew I turned the key to lock the box in the first place but for some reason the lock was jammed now when the coffee was ready. Could it be my shoving the wallet inside when really it didn't fit? Hmmm. Oh well. I found a dollar got my coffee and asked for some help in the way of two carpenter friends who could surely figure out how to unjam the lock. They tried. No luck though for fear of breaking the lock and glove box which would end up costing alot more then trying another key once I got home.
So forget the camera and my wallet safe and sound under lock that no key would turn. We had a great morning joining in the family square dance set up so kids and adults ahem like me not so skilled in five-star dos e-dos could swing their partners with the best of them. And I don't know really if there is such a thing as five-star dos-e-dos but i do know square dancing can get tricky. I can follow along for awhile until I can't any longer. So, the family square dance was just my speed. My girl loves to dance and so do I and frankly there's not a better cure for the lost camera blues than dancing with friends and family and kickin up our heels.
After the family square dance and some great kids music in the morning hours of the jamboree, my girl and I head back into town for birthday party number three. After saying bye to the Papa and our friends, we'd nearly made our way out of the festival grounds when I looked at the gas meter and realized we were nearly out of gas. No problem right? My money was in my wallet which was stuck....in the glove box. Crap. Yep. here's where I hit the steering wheel and shed another round of tears. Exhaustion from little sleep the night before and well I was listening to alt-country all night and cryin goes right along with the music. I never screamed, never even felt frantic....just frustrated and tiiiiired..dawg tiiiired..say it in southern for me would you now? I pulled myself together explaining to my girl that her mama needed just a little release. She cried too saying she just felt said that I felt sad. Once I cried me a little river that lasted a few seconds, I felt ready to figure out our plan...and just then I looked up and saw a friend pedaling his bike out near the entrance where we now were. He lent me twenty dollars for some gas and off we went...I know there's a song in here somewhere. As we drove away, I smiled. My girl and I talked about the good stuff that happened among the frustration and about the people that surround us who reached out to help. And in the scheme of things a lost camera and locked up wallet were definitely not so bad.
After birthday party number three and a good shower and a little rest, we picked up a friend and head on back to the festival this time just for a few hours. One night of camping after a week of not much sleep was plenty thank you. I'd shared the story of my wallet and my dear friend went to work on trying to pry the thing loose. As we made our way, I noticed a Police car in my rear-view mirror. He couldn't be tailing me right? Yeah, not so right on this one. Sure enough lights go on and within a minute there we are in the Lowe's parking lot pulled talking to a State Trooper. He let me know me that as of this day, my tabs had expired. Dang. Oh crap. Yep I screwed up. I am never late with this stuff and somehow I was this year. "License and Registration" he asks kindly. Um, well sir I can't hand that over just now cause its locked in my glove box. And there is my friend trying to pry it loose with a butter knife. He took my name, checked me out in the computer I guess and came back to the car to say--"get your tabs, fix your light, and your glove box and have a good day." Whoo now there's some kindness in action.
After that, we head on out to the festival feeling elated and light. We heard yet another amazing band called "Petunia and the Vipers". See them soon if you can. And again, plenty of kid fun at the Stringband Jamboree for my girl and her pals. She got to help make a smoothie off the grid style...using pedal power to blend a beautiful array of organic berries. She and her pals marched in the kids parade and waltzed and hoola hooped until her sweet little self was so tiiired she had just enough energy to climb on her mama for a hip ride back to the car.
I have to share one more act of random kindness before I close and this one comes from another highlight from this festival called the band scramble. People in the crowd, musicians and non-musicians alike mix themselves up into small groups to form a band and write a song in about one-hour's time. The first of the three scrambled bands set up to play and the lead singer mentioned his wallet was missing. My heart sunk. His wallet missing. My camera. Crap. Well, awhile later I saw him standing in the crowd watching his grand-daughter hoola hoop. I asked him if he'd had any luck with his wallet. He was grateful for my asking and told me he'd called home and his wife told him he left the wallet at home so it wasn't missing after all. Oooh I hoped the same kind of luck will hold for my camera though I knew I'd not left it at home. When he heard about my camera, he reached for my hand and asked if he could say a prayer. He held my hand and prayed on my camera's safe return. Kindness in pure form. This is not about religion for me but about a stranger reaching out full of good intention. Here, kindness transcending any differences in spirituality, experience, belief. A beautiful closing to the day.
By Monday morning, new tabs were on the car, my wallet retrieved from the glove box thanks to three determined women (one my six-year old) and some bbq tools are long enough to pry the wallet lose. The glove box now opens with the key. Despite a few very minor bumps, this was a great weekend and one that surely reminds me of the importance of perspective. And as for the tears. They refreshed me and the truth was I needed a good cry or two. As for the camera. Well I haven't seen it yet. I'll search the car again as I'm not quite ready to give up.
In the meantime, here are a few pictures taken with a friend's camera..