The Visit

April 17, 2017

One of her new outfits

After much schedule juggling my granddaughter Judah finally made it to the farm for a twenty-four hour visit. She’s sixteen, is joining the National Honor Society, and has two part-time jobs.  The first job, working in the kitchen at UCYC in Prescott, actually provides her a little income.  Her second part-time job as an actress feeds her soul.

Judah is a Broadway musical star in the making–and she has what it takes, from the voice, to the acting skill to the determination and discipline necessary to do what must be done to make it.  Since her parents moved her to Prescott, she’s been in Our Town, Annie Jr, Little Women, Cinderella and, most recently, Into the Woods in which she was an ugly stepsister.  She also won the “People’s Choice” award in the PCA’s Young Playwright competition for her hilarious short play entitled He Came to Pick Up Isabella.   She’s definitely a chip off this old writer’s block.  Oh yeah, there’s a joke in there somewhere.

With the years whizzing past–how is it possible that she’s already sixteen?!–and despite all of the busy-ness in her life at the moment, I just wasn’t willing to let this birthday slip by without the requisite “Shopping with Oma” trip.

That this annual event is something I look forward to every year is pretty much an oxymoron for me.  You see, I hate to shop.  I’m the sort of person who enters the store, eyes forward, jaw tight and fists clenched.  I make a beeline for the item I came to buy, snatch it up and return post haste to the checkout counter.  I do not compare prices. I do not consider alternatives.  I do not randomly pull into a shopping center just to see what sort of merchandise a store might carry.  More times than not, I talk myself out of buying something before I ever leave home.

This is likely because I’ve worked for myself for more than twenty years now.  Over lo those many years, I’ve learned that every minute I’m not home is money lost.  (Sometimes, it’s money lost even when I’m at home. I have a crummy boss and I’d fire myself if I thought I could hire a better employee.) Anyway, these days it’s so much easier to shop online.  But even that tries my patience.  If a site makes me click through too many hoops, I’m outta there.  Don’t talk to me, don’t show me videos and don’t slow down my “shopping experience” with your freaking suggestions.  I want what I came for and nothing else.

Given that, I not sure why I enjoy shopping with Judah so much.  Is it because we’re both March Aries? Or perhaps it’s that Judah and I are both Autumns when it comes to colors and can ooh and aah over salmons and kakhis.  Is it because we are both creative types and like the same semi-theatrical styles?  Okay, not so theatrical for me these days as my tastes have definitely settled into jeans and t-shirts, and I think I’m dressed up if there is no manure on my clothes.  But long ago in a galaxy far away I made my own clothes, including Renaissance Faire costumes.

Whatever it is, we mesh.  We did the deed this morning and were both grinning as we left the store only an hour later.  Ah, that’s why it works.  She knows herself well enough to choose only the styles that suit her.  She even likes the items I suggest!  More importantly, there’s no agonizing or dithering.

Yep.  That’s my girl!