Bridging, Trollies, Chaos and Chinese Buffet

Today was the bridging ceremony for Avocado's massive Girl Scout troop. Bridging, for those of you not in the GS know, is the process whereby a scout ascends from one level of being, Girl-Scout-wise, to the next: Daisy to Brownie, Brownie to Junior, Junior to Cadette, etc. (technically Brownies don't ascend, they "fly up." Yes, this will be on the test). Because we loves us a metaphor, the troop traditionally holds its ceremony in the Japanese Tea Garden at Golden Gate Park. Cause they've got the second best bridge in town:



The deal is, they cluster by level on different sides of the bridge: Daisies, Juniors and Seniors on one side, Brownies, Cadettes and Ambassadors on the other. First the bridging Daisies climb over the bridge: on the side they came from everyone sings "Good Bye Daisies!" and on the other side the assembled group yells, "Welcome to Brownies!" Then the Brownies cross over to Junior-hood, and the Juniors there welcome them, and on and on. Afterward, there's the Court of Awards, in which each girl is given the various badges, patches and pins she has earned since the last court. Finally, the friendship circle and dismissal. Very picturesque, not a dry eye in the house. This year they also honored various volunteer grownups--I, as Cookie Cupboard Mistress, got a cool GS mug, a pair of GS kneehigh socks (as if), and a bejeweled Tshirt that says "Girls Rock!" Avocado says I am never to wear the shirt out of the house.

And then there was a new wrinkle. In the past the Council has held a big "Hall of Fame" event--a day at Waterworld--for the girls who sold over 1000 boxes. This year, no. So our Fabulous Leader arranged for a trackless cable car to drive us down to a highly chaotic Asian buffet restaurant in Daly City for a special dinner: the Hall of Famers got sprigs of fake roses, ribbons proclaiming them Hall of Famers, and little visors with (no lie) gilded cookies on them. She had also provided a banner to afix to the side of the cable car: "Miss Nancy's Troops Cookie Sale 2009 Hall of Fame!" This (and the noise makers she had thoughtfully provided for the girls) made the cable car a festive, very noisy, sight. As it happened, the Spouse was driving home from work and saw us. I think he was glad he wasn't on the cable car (my hearing may never recover). It was a lovely event, in the rough n' ready chaotic nature of such events; I ate too much and talked and laughed with other parents, while the girls stayed at other tables and pretended they didn't know us.

And then Avocado brought one of her fellow scouts home for a sleepover, and they stayed up until 2 am. And Scouting, at least for us, is over until the fall. Now to pack for summer camp.

Well, I Wasn't Expecting That

I have been using my morning pages (aka journaling) to resolve questions and get out-of-sequence scenes sketched out for the WIP. This morning it didn't want to do that. It wanted to do something else.

Understand, I am not one of those people who talks about her muse lofting her along somewhere. But sometimes you don't want to write what you thought you were going to write, so you write something else. And this morning I found myself writing what looks like another Meviel story--this one involving pirates, of all things. Since I am already half way through a story I'd planned to submit for the next Lace and Blade anthology, I don't need to be writing Meviel stories, or stories about pirates for that matter. And yet. This one has a chamber pot as a plot point; what's not to love?

Still, I do wish my brain would warn me about these impending story showers.

Criminal Moustache

With no children in the house, the Spouse and I decided we needed to see a movie, so we went to see The Taking of Pelham 123. There are a few geographic bobbles, as there always are in movies set somewhere you know. It drove the Spouse (aka Mr Ears) nuts that the train whistle they use is not an NYC Transit whistle--it's more like a diesel train whistle (hey, I caught that too). And the music was deeply irritating.

OTOH, it moves too fast for you to really worry about the preposterousness of it all. John Travolta sports a moustache which is the epitome of Evil, and Denzel Washington's character is just slightly tarnished--but he resists bringing out the big charisma guns until the very end of the movie, which is very good of him. It's fun.