And on the homefront...

I decided to 'hijack' the blog for a little note about our interesting day yesterday...

The kids and I have been 'on our own' for about two weeks now. It's amazing to me that I've stayed here in Maryland both weekends - not many years ago I dreaded being home alone for a weekend and now the kids are such good company (and a huge help around the house) with such active schedules that I couldn't manage to go 'home' to Pennsylvania even if I were scared... But yesterday was a particularly busy, particularly interesting day. It was certainly one I would never have imagined experiencing.

The day started as usual, leaving the house by 6:30 am to beat the DC traffic and get to work. Summer is coming to the DC area and my commute wasn't too bad... though the marshes near Ft. Meade/NSA (which I pass through every day on my trip) have gotten really kind of gross. Lots of standing water and a green scum over it... It should be no surprise that its so humid the sheets of paper on my desk curl up at the corners overnight - the DC area really is reclaimed swamp and marshland... Meetings and data discussions made for a typical morning. I had to leave work by 11, though, to get home for the start of the interesting part of the day...

About four weeks ago, we were approached Alexa's advocate (a great person who we hire to help work with the school team on Alexa's behalf during the process of developing her special education IEP) with a great opportunity. A person who provides autism services saw Alexa deliver a speech and mentioned to Linda, the advocate, how articulate Alexa was. Linda told Steve (the service provider) about Alexa's involvement with the theatre troupe, and that many of her friends wore autism awareness buttons ("I have a friend with Autism") during April. One thing led to another and Steve decided he wanted to include Alexa in a DVD series documenting the real stories of persons with autism, which will be used to train service providers. Alexa agreed that it sounded like a good thing to do and the ball was in motion.

Yesterday was 'filming day' - the crew from Take One productions came to Old Mill High to film a rehearsal (PPTC is doing one more performance of Thoroughly Modern Millie on June 24) and to interview Alexa, some of her friends, the school psychologist, and me. I don't know what I was imagining, but I think I didn't really get the size of the project. There were at least 6 people manning the camera, dealing with the lights (so many lights!) and generally overseeing the project.

It was fascinating to watch the making of a documentary. First, they took lots and lots and lots of shots - plenty of 'B roll' to fill in around the interviews. They were meticulous about making sure that the background in the shots was interesting - costume racks, the PPTC logo, etc. They were also very careful to make sure that they had footage they could use of the kids looking at each other in certain ways or Alexa and I repeating certain lines when they were afraid background noise might have interfered.

The kids were great - they dealt with hot lights and cords and cameras filming them as if they weren't there. Three kids who know Alexa pretty well - Kensey who has been in school with Alexa since first grade, and Bobby and Kaitlyn who have been great theater pals - were interviewed about their impressions of Autism and Alexa. We intentionally stayed back (as Alexa says, that would have been totally awkward to have listened in), but the producer said they were really really great. It took a LONG time (at least 30 minutes) to shoot the interview, and the whole time a group of girls were dancing in the background - we felt sooo bad for them doing the same thing over and over.

Alexa and I were interviewed together. It was fun to do it together and interesting to think back on how far we've come. I actually made the producer cry (which then made me cry) when talking about the experience of getting her diagnosed and how my friend told me, as I called her crying on my way back from the psychologist's office, "remember, she's the same person she was 2 hours ago." Looking back, that diagnosis has unlocked so much potential because we've gotten appropriate supports and treatment, but at the time it seemed so scary.

After 5 hours of taping, it was time for our next adventure - a trip to the Folger Shakespeare Library. We joined the Folger as Members after going to see "A Winter's Tale" in March. Alexa is a Shakespeare junkie, and we all love a good play. And, Caryn, the girlfriend of John's brother Tim, works there - we all want Caryn to be our sister/aunt-in-law. So as members, we got an invite to "Member Weekend" and the Friday night event, "The Curatorial Eye" looked interesting - some of the curators' favorite items and a chance to chat with them. I thought it would be perfect for Alexa as she would like to become a librarian/archivist some day (to pay the bills before she sells her first bestseller). After I'd signed up to go, I realized that it was the exhibit opening, and Caryn is the Exhibition Manager at the Folger, so it was 'her' event! How cool!

So, we headed to the Metro (traffic is so much better going against the flow - 30 minutes to the Metro - woot!) and then into the District. The Folger is on Captiol Hill, so we got off the Metro right outside the Capitol and saw a bunch of young staffers and interns heading the other way. The Capitol South metro station was plastered - literally the entire entrance area - with banners promoting limits on antibiotics for animals. It was interesting because it was clearly aimed at congressional staffers, and I'm guessing it was timed to coincide with a documentary I heard about on NPR that morning, dealing with big Agri-business. It was awesome walking past the Capitol and the Supreme Court on our way to the Folger - so quiet on a summer Friday evening.

The event itself was really wonderful. They have some beautiful items on exhibit - a notebook with lovely Shakespeare-related illustrations by a Romanian schoolgirl, a book of magic, gorgeous illustrated books, various copies of Shakespeare inscribed as gifts from famous people or to famous people. Ben was enthralled with a nifty setup that allows you to see a folio in a case and then use a computer-based interface to 'flip' through scanned pages of it. Alexa got to talk to a couple of the staff members (one who is the Reference Librarian), including the curator who did her favorite case, amazing illustrations including one that included tin embossing. Caryn's parents and grandmother were there and so it was also great to get to visit with them.

Because John is out of town, we had to convince Ben to come with us. And the 'carrot' that did the trick was the promise that not only would he see Uncle Tim but that we would also finish up the day with a 'floodlit' tour of the monuments. I'm ashamed to say that even though they've lived here their entire lives, my kids have not gone to visit the monuments per se. They've been to the Smithsonian too many times to count, been on the Mall for events, but never specifically visited the monuments. So last night I figured it wouldn't be too crowded and we could skate in for a quick visit.

We took a cab from the Folger to the Lincoln Memorial - it was muggy and we were tired, so it seemed the easier thing to do. We tipped the cabbie quite nicely (now that the 'zoning' system is gone, a 2 mile trip is hardly worth it for them), and headed out of the cab to the monuments. There were tons of tour busses and people milling around. We got there at the perfect time - dusk. Looking down over the reflecting pool to the Washington Monument and the Capitol was gorgeous. The sun was setting behind the Lincoln and the lights were already on making it look so majestic. We hopped over to the Korean memorial for a quick visit - its a really neat complement to the Vietnam memorial - a stark black wall with faces of soldiers etched on it and statues of soldiers in front of it. The number of tour groups there, including student groups, was really surprising. Then we went to the Lincoln, stopping at the "I Have a Dream" mark to look out and think about how amazing it must have been to look out on that day. When we got to the top, Ben was trying to use what little was left of his battery to get the inscription over Lincoln's head - alas, to no avail.

We were exausted and so we skipped the other parts of my planned excursion (FDR and Jefferson), jumped in a cab, and headed back to the Capitol South Metro station (again overtipping, and going back that far just to make it half worth the cabbie's while - he was a great guy and probably wouldn't have minded anyway, but ...)

We were soooo happy to make it home (by 10:00, no less) and get showers (I forgot to mention, in our journeys, one of the Capitol Hill pigeons hit me). Exhausting, but a really cool day. The only way it could have been better would have been to have John with us... 10 years ago, I'd have never guessed I could do all that on my own, but its funny what one mom and two amazing kids can do!