Soggy Show Day

My day at work began with cleaning up fallen soggy ceiling panels and insulation, and helping place buckets up in the exposed space under the air conditioner condensation unit for our theater that apparently froze up after our last big electrical storm. I may never dunk cookies in milk or coffee again.

It was the jungle summer camp performance day, and we were expecting 150 people in the theater at 11:15 with the stage lights heating up the space, but we had to turn the a/c off. There I was climbing the ladder with buckets and plastic tubs while wearing my natural linen suit and turquoise shell, with coordinating sandals and matching turquoise toenail polish.

Did I mention that we have new neighbors? The back half of our building has been rented to an Orthodox Jewish high school, and they were moving in today. The moving vans were blocking our parking lot exit. The portable classrooms that the school has set up in the parking lot have already taken out twenty-five parking spaces, and we have the 150 parents and grandparents who need to park for Show Day.

I am grateful for the Orthodox school guy who helped lift the trash bags of soggy ceiling panels into our shared dumpster. That wet stuff was very heavy, the dumpster was really full, and I was still trying to not look totally filthy and sweaty in my linen “dress up” outfit. Maybe he was hypnotized by my awesome toenail polish.

Thank heaven the a/c repairman arrived during the final rehearsal on stage. Four enormous moving men also arrived looking for a coke machine, which we don’t have. The preschooler who was supposed to be the jungle explorer in the play decides not to participate. This was okay, but kinda inconvenient. The jungle birds were doing a fabulous job, though, fluttering across the stage singing “In the jungle, the mighty jungle, the lions sleeps tonight…”

Our Big Kahuna decided I should give a little speech at the end of the performances. Between the borderline autistic kid who could only stay calm if he could stroke the dragonfly pin on my jacket, and the diabetic kid needing an emergency snack, I didn’t have much time for public-speaking anxiety.


Our first camp is over. Amen. Monday we start our magic carpet ride camp. We’re born to be wild…