My first show today was at the Sahara Library, and it was in a meeting room packed to overflowing. I'm grateful that there are a lot of enthusiastic kids all over the place, but after my stint here last fall and from the shows so far this spring I have to say that Las Vegas kid audiences are particularly fun to perform for. I'm not sure why it is... maybe the general "entertainment" vibe here... but boy, they are always dancing and playing along and laughing and applauding with everything they've got.
We came back to the KOA and caught a nap between shows... well, some of us did... Evee opted out of sleeping. My second show was at the Sunrise Library, which is one of the places I had a show last year. Again, another really upbeat crowd, which included a very active group of googly-eyed fifth grade girls.
After the show, we stopped at a store so Roseann could buy a new hat that she's been angling for... well, not a specific hat, but just a hat of a certain type. In the parking lot a woman came up to her to hand her a flyer about an offer to clean our house. At first, Roseann misunderstood that to be some kind of ad for a cleaning/maid service, and she chuckled, pointing at the bus, and said, "Um, that's our house for the time being. Sorry, but I live in Washington." The lady suddenly broke down and her eyes welled with tears and she asked if Roseann knew anybody who might need their house cleaned. Her desperation made it clear that it was really a "will work for" kind of thing. Roseann gave her a hug and said, "well, it's small, but it is a huge mess right now... I'll ask my husband and see if you can help tidy it up." Roseann brought her inside and gave me back the money I had given her to take in to buy a hat, which caught me off guard. But the woman was very eager and seemed nice, and she ended up doing a really great job in record time. I was very impressed. We were happy to pay her for the work she did, and although it wouldn't have mattered after that point what she did with the money or if her story was genuine, Roseann was glad to see her in the store later handing in a job application.
Normally, we're not the kind of people who would pay to have our house cleaned (we wish we could afford that, because it isn't our favorite thing to do). But we also don't like to see somebody in a desperate situation who is willing to do what they can to help themselves, and not offer some sort of assistance. Roseann and I have talked about this before, and when she was growing up, her mother would always stop and offer people with "will work for food" signs some kind of yard work or housework. Sadly, only once out of dozens of times she offered that, did the person actually accept the offer and come and do some work, and he was very eager and willing to do so. Boy, you gotta respect that kind of heart and determination. One of our favorite movies of recent years is The Pursuit of Happyness, and it reminds you that there are people out there who are really trying very hard to do everything they can to improve their situations and only need a little support and understanding now and then. On the other hand, you want to help the people who are down on their luck to the point that they have lost their hope and heart and determination and are just asking for handouts... but our philosophy has been to give what we can that they have asked for if it's in our power and comfort level to do so, without the possibility of enabling misuse. So if we see someone on a street corner with a sign that says some variation of "need help", we'll grab some extra food out of our fridge or grab some snack and a bottle of water and hand it out the window as we drive by. We hope that helps in the short term, at least.
We came back to the KOA and went swimming and did some laundry. Becca wrote an e-mail to her preschool class back home while I put Evee to bed. Normally, the girls go to bed together, but since Evee had skipped her nap, she was ready to get to sleep by that point and Becca was still wound up and excited to write her e-mail. We did some internet surfing and watched Back to You, and now we're going to bed.
Roseann with her new hat...
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