If you want to feel as though there is no place for you in your own house, host a party with 15 children ages 9-14. They were not bad, not at all. They were noisy but very well behaved. It�s just that in a small house, staying present enough is not the problem. Fading away a bit is. The noise follows everywhere. No place is safe.

I am exhausted but it�s a good tired. Having a party would not be quite so difficult if only we weren�t such slobs. The hardest part is the cleaning in preparation for the party. (Cleaning afterwards was amazingly easy and, much to my amazement, Day-Hay pitched in cheerfully and productively thereby making it more likely I�ll host such a party again.) Just getting the basement in useable shape was a major project.

I cannot say that I ate particularly well. We served pizza, of course, and we did have a vegetable plate but none of us ate much from it. Mr. Philately took it downstairs and told them that, as adults, we were required to serve vegetables. For some reason, they preferred the pizza�and the sugar cookies that they decorated. Unfortunately, I preferred the pizza and the sugar cookies too.

The group was a funny group. Theater kids tend to be. You have not lived until you have seen a group of boys, dressed in hats and pieces of Day-Hay�s old dance costumes, dancing to the music without any self-consciousness. Such a sight reminds you what the word �flare� means.

And now, except for one more party that some other parent is hosting, the play �The Bridge to Terabithia� is over. The kids who became so tight during rehearsal and the twenty or so performances each cast did is over. All week, since the last performance Monday (Day-Hay�s cast) or Sunday (the other cast), the kids have been in mourning. They are readjusting to ordinary life but, being kids involved in drama, they are doing it dramatically. It was nice to see the other parents and realize it is not just my child who has sat in the living room, listening to a CD of the music, eating chocolate, and weeping.

The �Goodbye to Terabithia Party� is over and so is Terabithia.

Goodbye.

|