Maybe I *Am* a Little Hard-Headed

The reason I went to Fort Worth this time (last Sunday afternoon) was to attend the Fort Worth Symphony concert at the Fort Worth Botanical Gardens. They were playing some Carmen, some Liszt, and ended with a rousing 1812 Overture with firecrackers that were advertised as “jaw-dropping” and “hair-raising.” They were pretty fabulous; here’s a YouTube video from the 2012 event. This year’s really was better.

There wouldn’t be any videos of this year’s program, because the guy who welcomed us all at the beginning of the concert very specifically said PLEASE NO CAMERAS, NO PICTURES, NO VIDEOS. I’m sure everyone obeyed, well, except for the people who were sitting in front of us, who were speaking with accents, maybe Italian, so possibly their English wasn’t very good, and apparently they didn’t understand the request. Anyway, it was great, AND, it’s always great to spend time with Peter! (And Kevin and April)

Monday, we went to the Fort Worth Museum of Science and History.

Monday evening, Peter got his first haircut.

Tuesday, before I left to come back home to Waco, April took her niece to TCU for Theater Camp, and I took Peter in his stroller over to the local community center’s playground. There’s a book exchange on the playground area. Peter walked over to it and pointed and said, “Book!” I took out a Richard Scarry book and read about 2 pages of it before Peter left to walk around, splash in the water fountain, check back by the book box (“Book!”), and I read him a couple more pages. Then we went to the swings, and I pushed him in the baby swing for a while, and he walked up and down the steps on the play equipment. Periodically, he would wander back by the book box and say “Book!” before walking around for a while more. Then April came. We all sat on a bench facing the swings and watched the big kids, who are at the community center for Summer Camp. April took Peter back over to swing a bit more before we left, and I was enjoying watching them. Suddenly, there was a loud, alarmed shout, and I turned and saw this:

Seriously. It was like in a movie, when a character sees disaster coming right toward him/her, larger than life, on a collision course. And the important lesson here is that, if there’s some sort of out-of-the-blue situation that requires quick thinking, I am NOT your girl! The first thing that went through my mind was not MOVE!!!!NOW!!!! It was Wow, this is just like in a movie, when a character sees disaster coming right toward … BAMMM!!!! Right in the middle of my forehead. Kids on the swings (which were several feet away) had been kicking the basketball as they were swinging. I was just in the really wrong place at the really wrong time. But, by time the ball got to me, it had lost some of its speed, and though it clonked me, just north of my nose, I kept my head straight up and really only had a bit of a headache. No bruise, no passing out, no seeing stars, no confusion beyond that with which I usually deal.

Thank goodness our foreheads are pretty sturdy! Really, I’m fine!