Girls' Night Out

I see we have some new readers! I'm glad. Welcome. I hope I haven't disappointed by not posting in the past five days. So here's a little catch-up.

Last Sunday, 16 August, we hatched a plan to go to the season finale (and 70th performance of the season) of the extraordinary Circus Smirkus, kid-performed show in Greensboro, Vermont.

And since it was at the end of a dirt road in the boonies near Bruce's home town of Johnson, we intended to stop by and then take Mandy with us for a dearly needed break from the grueling task of nonstop caregiving.

With us was family friend Romany Redman of Spokane, Washington, a Middlebury College student just three days away from flying to Finland and then taking the train to Siberia for a year-long study abroad -- way abroad. Steve Mease agreed to tend to Bruce and mow the acreage! So with me, CD, it was just the three of us.

I'll add here that, for a preamble, Amanda and I and Bruce spent two and a half hours prior with Bruce's lawyer who made a house call. Did I mention the sweltering heat?

Then the ladies went to the circus. We laughed. We cried. We applauded. We each ate a hot dog. Gasp! Did I mention the sweltering heat in the tent?

I know many families who have sent their kids to this astounding circus camp. And for perhaps a half dozen of these acrobat/juggler/clowns it was their very last performance. Pictured above is Marc and Sarah Tischler whose son Jacob was taking his final bow. Their car was packed to take Jacob to Carnegie Mellon University. Funny man Ben Bond would be off to MIT the following week. And a flamboyant young performer told me he was going to circus college in Montreal. Awwwwww. So sweet.

It was a night to remember always. ~CDorschner