When our alarm went off at 6:45 AM, he leapt right out of bed, and then immediately fell back in. His back was just plain locked up. Neither one of us has any idea what he did to it! Forest was extremely disappointed that he couldn't go racing... but of course there was no way he could drive a speeding car if he couldn't stand up. Thank heavens he isn't a gloomy soul; once that decision was made, he started to cheer up a bit, and really wanted to get out of the house and do something fun (however less energetic) for the 4th.
I took Kirstin to the parade, while he applied heat to his back for a couple of hours, which seemed to really help a lot. Kirstin and I had a jolly time, sitting on the curb in the sunshine, sweaty and gathering candy. It was a good parade!
Kirstin and I proceeded back to the house, and happily Forest was up and around. The three of us walked down to the island for the usual picnic and activities sponsored by the city. As soon as Kirstin decided to stop pouting because we were walking, not driving, we started to have fun. There's a magic show, and Bill's bagpipe band plays a short concert. They also have free face painting, clowns, games, and that sort of thing. It's a good time. We settled on the grass, munched our hot dogs and got mustard all over ourselves.
While we were watching the pipe band, I ran into Peggy! She and I were great friends our first couple of years of high school, before she moved to St. Johns. The last time I saw her was about 7 years ago, at her wedding. She's been living in Colorado since then. She has three beautiful kids, and is living with her husband, Rich in a house outside of Colorado Springs. Actually, it's so far in the boonies that they don't have a phone line yet. True to form, Peg looks great, and is still just as sweet as I remember. She's one of the smartest people I know, and she always got perfect grades in school; but her family's really old-fashioned, and so is she. I was brought up to believe that her choice to stay home and be a housewife was a 'shame', but I don't agree with that anymore. We could use a few more stay-at-home-moms who are as intelligent as Peggy.
After the concert we let Kirstin get her face painted, and picked through the collection at our town's used book store. Forest had never been in there, and it was fun to watch his face light up. He'd been looking for a copy of Neuromancer, and they had one for $2. We got a whole stack of books.
We had collectively decided that it would be nice to get out of the heat for a while, so we drove to town to see Fantasia 2000. It was amazing, we all really enjoyed it. I loved the Rhapsody in Blue peice, and the final piece, Firebird Suite was just plain a gorgeous work of art. Kirstin liked the interesting Pines of Rome with flying whales and all. It was pretty strange, but I guess it was neat.
While we were in town, we picked up strawberry shortcake supplies from the Store, and picked up Forest's birthday gift from his mom. It is a completely delicious black raspberry pie. MMmm. She actually picked the berries herself, and made the whole thing from scratch. We brought that along to my mom's house, since it was our job to supply desserts, we figured we'd let people choose between the pie and the shortcakes. They were both smash successes.
At my mom's I was happy to find Karen, Jim, Laura, Grandma Ruth, and my Aunt Helen and Uncle Jim. I haven't seen Aunt Helen since Karen's wedding, and only fleetingly then. She's probably the nuttiest aunt I have, but she's also the most fun. She won't use any artificial anythings, on her skin, in her house, or in her food... but she will take you windsurfing in a heartbeat, and races horses for fun. Go Aunt Helen. She's recently taken up tutoring local kids, and I guess she's really enjoying that.
We had a wonderful picnic dinner, full of homemade treats, and I was happy to see (again) how nicely Forest fits in with my folks. He always has a really good time there, and I think my family likes him very much. My mom treats him with the same joking/caring sort of approach that all of us 'grownup kids' get.
Laura was pretty disappointed, though. She had planned that her new boyfriend Steve would join us shortly after dinner, and had been eagerly awaiting his arrival practically all day. He had to drive to Chicago and back for work, and called at 8:30 PM to say that he had just pulled in to Chicago. It had taken him 6 hours to get there, and he still had to come all the way back. Poor Laura. I think it's worse, because Dan, her last boyfriend, always used to say he was coming, and then not show up. She had just been telling everyone that this boyfriend was much more promising, and was very excited for us to meet him.
We were all playing volleyball when Steve called, and Laura left for a while, wanting some alone time.
Forest and I both feel awful for her, and nothing we said after that could really cheer her up.
We all drove together to see the fireworks, which were spectacular this year, and then went our various ways from there. Forest commented again on how much he enjoyed hanging out with my folks. I'm really glad of that. His back had been hurting him most of the day, but it ended up being a good day, not a bad one.
I'm only a little concerned, because this morning it's just as bad, and he's not doing anything about it. Yesterday he said that he was taking this as a sign that he ought to set up an introductory visit with a doctor, and start taking care of himself. I hope he doesn't forget that resolution. He will need refills on his inhaler soon, anyway, he might as well get his back looked at. I think at the very least a chiropractor would likely do him a world of good.
I tried to get him to go this morning, when once again, he couldn't get out of bed, but didn't have any luck persuading him. It's wholely frustrating. I know I'm worrying for no good reason, but part of it isn't worry; it's just sickening to see the one I love suffering and not doing anything about it.
On a happier note, Forest and I had talked about it last week, and decided that I should learn Tae Guk 7, which is a brown belt form. I had been working for my blue, but when I was testing last week, Master Kim asked me to continue to the next level, and I had to tell him I wasn't ready for it. Forest thinks Master Kim may be pushing me forward, so that there is a qualified partner for my friend Elizabeth, who just earned her brown, and will likely test for black next spring. Master Kim prefers to test black belts in small groups, not individually, since there's sparring involved. Anyhow, to make a long story short, in order to please Master Kim, Forest taught me Tae Guk 7, and said I should ask Master Kim if he wanted me to test on it later.
Master Kim's reply was, "Go ahead, we'll see how you do."
I didn't have time to get nervous, I was rather put on the spot! When I said 'later', I meant 'next week', or 'next month'. Master Kim took it as 'in 20 seconds'. Gulp.
So I did it, and earned a 4 on it! (That's 100 percent. Woo hoo!) So I guess I'm working on a brown belt, not a blue one. It's going to be difficult, but at least I'll have Will at the same level, and Elizabeth one above to help. It will be a tall order to learn all of the next three palgwe forms at the same time; while retaining my memory of the 11 forms I've already tested on, but I think I can do it.
Think positively. 11 down, 6 to go! (1 more tae guk, 4 more palgwes, and Koryo.)
I'm pretty excited, because I have discovered the wonders of Ebay. I know, I really don't need another way to spend money; but I just got such a bargain there! I am helping one of the students in class find cheap equipment, because buying the sparring gear new costs about $120, which is a lot for a college student to spend. I searched the Internet, thinking someone might have a set for sale. I ended up bidding on a full set of equipment, and winning, and paying about 1/6 of what the stuff would have cost retail. It's awesome. I feel like I've kicked capitalism in the pants!
