Kerrin is first flute in her middle school band. She practices everyday, often here in my room as I work.
It's magical listening to her.
She's been away at summer camp for two weeks; she has another ten days to go....
..days before she left we hung out at the Apple Store
She hasn't been away before, I miss having her about. I miss hearing her practice her flute.
The youngest of four, she has a lot to look up to. Her brother is a mathematical and linguistic genius. By her age, 13, he was already acing college Calculus. He took to Latin and Ancient Greek like child's play. When he tired of math, he worked at the Boston Globe - wrote numerous articles for their Sports Dept.; he's interned for the Boston Bruins, now works for the Red Sox.... How do you beat that?
Karlene found her own niche. She was in a national TV commercial, she's danced professionally with Boston Ballet... Gorgeous, tall, slender, brainy, she's working at a large Boston law firm - working her way to becoming a true Ally McBeal.
Bethany's strong willed, has a mind of her own. She is talent personified. With an IQ that rivals Ryan's, she has other interests than being academic Top Dog. She is a kick-ass volleyball player, a first-place long jumper, she is a gifted visual artist - winning a Silver Key in this past year's Boston Globe Scholastic Awards, she is first oboe in her high school band and Wind Ensemble. She masters everything she attempts - then, bored, usually walks away from it. This is my favorite link to her chess. After two years of slaughtering all the boys at her school, the day she beat Ryan she quit playing.
She and Kerrin play poker, loser washes the dishes.
So then there is Kerrin. She has brains, beauty, and talent to look up to. Does she falter under sibling rivalries? Nope, not one bit.
She earned her straight As in the same gifted and talented program from the same teachers that her older siblings had. Unlike all of them, she studies Chinese. She is the only person I know of who can beat Ryan at the game of Set. Instead of dancing, she is a blur of motion as a competitive majorette. Following her two older sisters' footsteps, she earned her spot as a starter on her school's volleyball team. And, as mentioned, she is a talented musician.
Kerrin's hair has grown considerably longer since this picture was taken. With the heart of an angel, when she returns from camp Kerrin will for the second time donate her hair to Locks of Love so a cancer patient may have a wig.
Back in January, after a classmate sent Kerrin the Meet your Meat web site, she became a staunch vegetarian. Articulate and intelligent, she will hold her own on any animal rights debate. After a few months of listening to her strong-willed opinions I myself went to the site. I decided to stand in solidarity with her - not so much for the animals' rights, but for health issues. Why eat arsenic-laced chicken breasts? What is healthy about that? You don't have to believe there is arsenic in your chicken, but it is rather logical if you realize that it takes enormous amounts of feed to 'feed' the chickens - those grains have rat poison on them to control the rodents it attracts - the chickens eat the rat poison, you ultimately eat the arsenic. Chicken just tasted rubbery and unpleasant after I learned all that.
I will admit that as soon as I dropped Kerrin off at camp, while I drove down the mountainside, I turned to Bethany and told her that I desired a cheeseburger. My friends listened to this hunger pain for a couple of days, too. So Bethany goes to Unos, has one, and comes home looking ill - "It didn't taste good Mom, honest, it just wasn't worth it."
I haven't indulged.
So, what is Kerrin eating? She wrote me a letter; she is eating donuts for breakfast, yogurt for lunch, and mashed potato sandwiches and cooked carrots for dinner. I can just hear her informing campers what disgusting ingredients are in those roasted wieners they are consuming! She is an ace.
We miss you Pumpkin. I'm getting dish-pan hands! LOL!
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