*Tink* *Scrunch*

It's not just flowers that betray spring's sneaky entrance. I'm sure many people are satisfied with the sight of the ferns unfurling and the tulips in bloom, but I'm a greedy person. I want the good all at once. Bring the heat, bring the smells, bring the noise, bring da funk, I'm ready.


To placate myself through the still chilly days, I fall back on my other senses. I listen for the unmistakable *tink* of the aluminum softball bats wafting up from the fields. And the *scrunch scrunch scrunch* of the trampoline springs perpetually and rhythmically as kids jump on and off.

The scents of lilac and apple blossom hit me every time I step outside and because it's a brief few weeks where the trees and bushes smell this good, I find myself wandering right up onto lawns and sides of houses and sticking my face in trees and shrubs while I can. I'm sure I look like a lunatic and am clearly what people might call a "trespasser" but this is obviously not a big concern of mine right now. The scents, the sights, the sounds of spring. Let them wash over me and take away the chill in my bones.

Spring even offers new vistas from which to be inspired by one's algebra.

Olivia performed beautifully at her piano recital on Mother's Day, doing two pieces from Les Mis as her gift to me. She performed with some other kids from the neighborhood, two of whom are 6 year old twins. They played songs I'm sure Olivia played in her first few recitals....Twinkle Twinkle, Happy Birthday, etc. With little bottoms scooting and feet swinging and tap dancing below the bench in a Parkinsonian dance, they still managed to find all the right keys at the right times, no matter where they were positioned on the bench at any given moment. Reminded me of another scooty bottomed kid ten years ago, nicknamed One Cheek Charlotte, her attention wandering, lips moving to another tune, fingers on the keyboard and up the nose in the same chord. Being able to sit still is apparently not a prerequisite to learning piano and given the level of play, I'm curious if in the end, it helps to fidget?

Happy Mother's Day to me