Juggler

(Life has settled down a bit so it's refreshing to just be doing a regular Tuesdays with Cleo post!)

I'm really, really loving seven months. I think this has been my favorite age so far. She's more interactive and more aware of the world now and playing with her is actually an involved experience! Before this, playing was more or less "Dad does something and I stare blankly or maybe smile a bit". Now it's actually something where I feel like there's give and take in the activities. 

So as I've mentioned before, Cleo likes it when I juggle, which has prompted me to juggle more. My control is very rusty to say the least, but so far my skill is good enough still to have prevented any injuries to my little girl. One day an errant club will bounce off of a couch cushion and be pulled by mystical forces straight at her head and on that day we will see if she can maintain this love of juggling. Til then, we're both enjoying things.

Based on this juggling love, I thought it would be nice to take Cleo to a show. There was a juggler named Curtis Carlyle performing at the Beaverton Library and I thought this would be perfect! I'm glad we did because I learned a lot of things from this experience.

1) The suburbs are a much, much different place! The place was completely freaking crowded. I hate crowds so much and almost turned around. Additionally, I joke about other dads being a rare commodity at events, but in Portland proper, I'm usually not completely alone. There is often another dad or two around, even if they are out with their family and not solo. Not here. You're on your own in soccer mom territory. I'm surprised I wasn't boxed in by minivans and SUV's gangland Chicago style when I tried to leave and told not to come back.

2) No one in Beaverton takes their babies to this stuff. The crowd had a lot of kids from toddlers on up to what looked like 3rd or 4th graders. There were babies there, but they were in carry-on baggage mode so that mom could pry her older kids from their video games and enjoy something real. This is a shame, because I plan on taking Cleo to more stuff out in Beaverton and I don't like feeling the odd man out. True, Cleo was often more preoccupied with the crowd than with the actual performer, but it's nice to get her out and experiencing stuff.

3) I had met the juggler before! I actually did not realize this until I got home and looked up the guy and saw some sans mustache pictures of him. Ten years ago when I got bored with my limited three ball juggling knowledge and decided to try leveling up my juggling skills, I started going to the juggling club at Reed College. At Reed, juggling is a PE credit, but they open things up to the public all year and during the summer they all juggle on the lawn. It's nice, although if you are not a part of the community it can all be a bit daunting.

Anyhow, my first time there I didn't have a clue what to do, and Curtis lent me some of his clubs to use. I hadn't ever juggled clubs  before this and I dropped them so many times that I damaged one of them (the foam on the top of it broke off). I was mortified and apologized profusely, but he pulled out another club and as he gave it to me he said, "It happens. Just keep throwing!" Such a wonderful gesture that quite possibly kept me from running away from juggling completely. I'm glad I finally got to see him perform!