Second Weekend...

So this is our second round of performances. Yeehaw. The picture is Shanna and me in stage makeup, being funny.

Yesterday, I went motoring on JB's boat again, with Ellie, her mom Diane, Shanna, her friend Kristen from Tucson, and more friends, Rose and Scott. Full boat, we did the usual excursion: Norman Island for snorkeling (we saw a HUGE Barracuda, about 5 feet long under our boat), Smuggler's Cove for drinks and a beautiful beach, then to Jost Van Dyke for food at Soggy Dollar's. Soggy Dollar's always lives up to its name, because you have to wade ashore to get to the beach. There is no dock. Of course, with catamarans and double hulls, like JB's boat, getting up close is no problem.

So after lunch, and few Vanilla Painkillers later, we shoved off and returned to St Thomas. It was a lovely afternoon.

That night, I went back to the theater to see a reading of the "after-school" production that Bethany has been devising with a group of 6 teenage girls. The show is called "Superhero Girls Like Me" and these girls and Bethany have been writing a script based on their hopes, fears, anxieties, empowerment, etc, for 3 months. Each girl created her own superhero character, complete with specific powers, and costume. But with great power comes great weakness as well, and each of them have a crippling kryptonitic obstacle to overcome. For one, it is an abusive parent, for another, it's anorexia. You get the point. Anyway, it was incredible, and all the parents were there to hear their daughter's words.

I sat behind two mothers who, throughout the show, were giving each other the "I can't believe I'm hearing this from her mouth" looks. I just wanted to tap them on the shoulder and say, "I’m sorry, but your parental anxieties are distracting me. I'm trying to watch the show." At the question and answer part of the evening, the adults got caught up in the fact that there was no adult role model, and that the message was "rely on each other" rather than "rely on adults." To quell this whole fervor of parental grappling, Bethany said, "The reason why you will not find that theme in here is because we are trying to avoid 'parent speak.' We all know the 'right answers.' These girls wrote what they feel and live everyday, and we lose the whole point of this exercise if parents try to exercise control over their daughters' words. We also don't mind that you might come away from this feeling anxious and disturbed."

GO BETHANY!

So now I’m blonde and tan, so I have successfully enjoyed my Caribbean jaunt.