Andy Smallman

Okay, I admit it. Today’s post title is misleading. It’s a joke. Oh, yes, Ella is still adorable today, same as ever. But a picture involving a dumpster? The word adorable? Misleading.

This is the dumpster used by PSCS. And since school got out, we’ve been cleaning. In today’s purge were a couple of sculptures crafted last fall by a small group of students under the direction of teaching staff member, Scobie, a certified genius. At Scobie’s PSCS job interview, just after he left, a parent on the hiring advisory committee looked at me and said, clear astonishment in her voice and on her face, “I think he’s a genius.”

So, yeah, last fall Scobie facilitated a sculpture activity in which students learned how to use thick cellophane tape to make human form sculptures using their bodies. They’d start by wrapping themselves with the tape, sticky side out, and then continue with the sticky side in. The end result, these cool forms.

Today’s end result, Scobie posing them in the dumpster. Another, one with angel wings, was rescued by a passerby. We saw it being carried down the street.

I just checked the blog stats and I’ve had a marked increase in visitors since telling you all that Ella is adorable. Either people find this so remarkable (as in hard to believe) that they need to come see for themselves, or they knew it all along and like proving themselves to be right. Either way, I decided I’d push my luck and try it one more night.

Ella’s cousin Tammy is in town from college and Ella, Melinda & I took her out for a Mexican dinner (Chloe is attending her best childhood friend’s high school graduation). On the way home we stopped at Fran’s Chocolates for, get this, a chocolate. Then we strolled over to a store called Anthropologie where Ella found a book called “One Good Deed a Day.” I took tonight’s picture of her showing one of the suggestions, “Leave an …ella in a public place.”

Pretty darn adorable, don’t you think??

So Ella suggested I tell you all about her second dance performance, the one that took place today. It was her Beginning Teen Ballet class and the class performance was excellent. In fact, after they finished the MC of the event commented, “Can you believe that’s BEGINNING ballet?”

Really, it was another fun time watching 16 dance performances, Ella’s, of course, being the highlight. But I do want to mention the Beginning Adult Tap class performance. There was one man and three woman, the man, up on stage giving it his all, really impressing me. It didn’t stop me from wondering if he’d lost a bet or something, though.

Anyway, on the subject of Ella being adorable I offer this photo from over 10 years ago (I don’t have one of her in her ballet outfit). Ella’s on the right and her cousin Olivia is on the left. As you can tell, they’re sharing an apple. Pretty darn adorable, don’t you think?

Ella’s been taking dance classes on Thursday and Friday nights since last fall and today she got to perform for an audience. It was her “Teen Beginning Swing & Ballroom” performance, and Ella’s class danced to “Roll Over, Beethoven.” There were just five who performed, and all girls. To create a partner for one, the instructor filled in.

It was quite fun watching Ella dance as it’s obvious how much she loves it. She chose dance this year over soccer, and it certainly suits her better. What was also fun was watching the other performances. Achingly adorable, of course, were the small kids. For instance, there was a “Pre-Ballet/Tap” class that consisted of probably 12 four-year-olds. Talk about cute!

But, still, not as adorable as Ella.

Back in 2003 I was messing around with Photoshop and came up with what I’m using as today’s photo. As I hope you can tell, it’s a mash-up of a couple of photos of me, both having had their color altered. I was semi-going for a vintage baseball card look, like this card of Jackie Robinson from 1955.

I like manipulating photos and think that had my life gone in another direction I might have ended up doing something like it professionally. Heck, maybe I would have been a sports card creator or graphic designer of some sort, although the idea of me being involved in graphic design almost sounds laughable today.

It does get me wondering about those little decisions we make that send us off in new directions. Are there multiple possible futures or just one?

Here’s a close-up of the pain aux raisins I referenced on Tuesday. Like I said, it was the best pastry I’ve had since returning from France last July.

You may recall me saying that I lost nearly 20 pounds while in France, something that surprises people. Most people figure a person will put on 20 pounds while living in France for a year, what with the butter, cheese, wine, bread and pastries. But it’s very interesting when you’re living there. Overall, people in France are much fitter-looking than people in the United States. A theory I heard, one that makes sense to me, has to do with there being a lot less “fast food” in France. Oh, it’s there, and it’s growing in popularity. But it’s nothing like here in the states.

It will be interesting to see if in the next 10 years people in France start talking about an obesity epidemic.

In today’s photo is my friend, Maddie, who finished her 3 year career as a PSCS student today. Maddie and I acknowledge that we must be in the same karass, so similar are we in our way of approaching children. If you aren’t familiar with the term “karass,” it comes from a fictional religion in Kurt Vonnegut’s novel Cat’s Cradle and means a group of people who work together to do God’s will. Some other people I think are in this karass are Julie Holmgren and Bob Perretz-Rosales. I think my mom may be in there, too.

Anyway, Maddie is off to The Evergreen State College this fall, planning to follow in my footsteps to study human development. She has a natural talent for working with middle schoolers and has plans on becoming a school counselor before one day overthrowing me as director of PSCS.

I offer this tribute to her for an incredible school year of hard work. Here’s to you, Maddie!

I took one of my students on a little tour of what I can best describe as “PSCS history” yesterday. She told me that one day she intends to have my job (which, by the way, is a very flattering thing for her to say). So as an end-of-the-year gift, I took her on this tour. It involved showing her some important sites in PSCS history, even those dating back to the school’s founding year, 1994-95. I told her that if she’s going to be school director some day, she’s going to need to know about these places.

Anyway, as the tour wound down we were both hungry and stopped at Crossroads Shopping Center in Bellevue, another of the school’s many former sites. Walking along the outside of the mall, we spotted this bakery, literally, “The French Bakery.” I insisted we go in.

We were greeted by a woman with a French accent who told me she was from Nice (a “nice” place to visit, as you may recall). I was quite taken by her. Even better, the pain aux raisins was by far the best pastry I’ve had since leaving France.

Wouldn’t YOU like to live in Utopian Heights? Who wouldn’t? And just how high are these height? I mean I had to point my camera skyward to get this picture!

This is another of my photos from the walk I went on yesterday. This was near the end of the walk, after I had stopped at the store to buy one of those cookies I talked about in a recent post. I certainly think those cookies are part of my utopia.

Part of what makes “Utopian Heights” so significant relates to a house near this sign (“under” may be more accurate). Turns out there is a website devoted to it. And to learn even more, I recommend this very detailed explanation.

It’s been a busy time for me at PSCS lately, so much so that I’ve contracted a little cold, a sure sign that my body is telling me to slow down. I took its advice today, taking it easy all day, including going on a relaxing walk.

I walked regularly in France while on sabbatical, and doing so today reminded me of being in France. It’s such a good thing for me to do. Today, like I did in France, I stopped to take pictures of things that caught my attention. Today’s photo was among the first I took. As beautiful as the flowers were, and that’s why I did stop, it was the number of bees present that really captured me. Having stopped, I could hear the buzzing and it was almost mesmerizing. Had I walked on by, I would have missed it.

Slowing down allows a person to see some things he might otherwise miss. Hear them, too.