Art, teenagers, predators, pudding and peek-a-boo

Some of the things I’ve been doing lately:

1) Timeraisers on Saturday night. I wasn’t permitted to bid, since I won art last year (seen here, entitled Bus Stop, by Claudia Urbach). GC bid on four pieces but didn’t win any. We were disappointed but we cheered ourselves up by reminding ourselves that we’ve actually never won, but we’ve always ended up with art anyway. That’s because a winner doesn’t follow through on their volunteer commitment, so we get called later in the year and offered the chance to take their place. It was an all-round good evening and we found out about some interesting organizations to volunteer for, including a hospice care organization and a stay-in-school initiative.

2) We continue to volunteer for Christie Lake Kids on Monday evenings. CLK provides recreational programming for at-risk kids. We work in the art program with the teenagers. It’s interesting how contagious their moods can be. Sometimes they’re all focused and productive, other times they’re bouncing off the walls and pushing each others buttons. Last night – and I’m putting this diplomatically – was not one of the better nights. We had four adults for eight kids, and it still didn’t seem like enough. I found myself watching the clock and fantasizing about the bottle of wine waiting at home for us. On the bright side, the more I get to know these kids, the more I like them, even when they’re being cranky and uncooperative or downright obnoxious. This surprises me.

3) Yesterday was the half-way point in National Novel-Writing Month. I’m going to hit the target – 50,000 words – today or tomorrow. I think I’ll keep going to the end of the month. It may not be good, but at least it’ll be long.

4) Eating butterscotch pudding.

5) Reading that crazy book about the crazy man-hunting Siberian tiger.

6) Trying to teach Kazoo how to say peek-a-boo. I stand in front of him and cover my face and then uncover it and shout Peek-a-boo, over and over and over again, while he looks at me like I’m mildly retarded.

7) Aly won the fruit contest!

That’s about it. I hope life is good for you too! I’m going to step outside now and enjoy the last sunny day for awhile.