{"id":321,"date":"2012-07-28T20:39:48","date_gmt":"2012-07-29T03:39:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/calirose.com\/blog\/?p=321"},"modified":"2012-07-28T20:39:48","modified_gmt":"2012-07-29T03:39:48","slug":"the-mama","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/calirose.com\/wackyworld\/the-mama\/","title":{"rendered":"The Mama"},"content":{"rendered":"

This post is part 3 of 11 in the series, \u201cMarvelous Midwest,<\/span><\/a>\u201d about discovering my extended family in Indiana and \u201cukeing\u201d it up in Missouri.\u00a0<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/em>For those of you joining this\u00a0miniseries<\/em>\u00a0midstream, let me catch you up.<\/p>\n

My husband Craig and I flew into Indianapolis from Los Angeles. My first trip to the \u201cmiddle.\u201d We met and totally fell in love with a branch of my family that, up to very recently, I didn\u2019t even know existed. And visa-versa. It\u2019s an interesting story, a how-we-got-here-from-another-country story.\u00a0Click<\/a>\u00a0for the details.<\/p>\n

Then we aimed our rent-a-car west into the \u201cShow Me State,\u201d Missouri, for the Mighty Mo Ukulele Festival where we gave workshops and headlined the Saturday evening concert.<\/p>\n

It was a short whirlwind of a trip, only nine days. But life-changing. These first blogs are about my family and the later ones are about the lovely people who are part of the red-hot ukulele renaissance that has gone global.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Patricia and me. This picture was taken shortly after we met, for the first time.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Patricia is the matriarch of my newly discovered family. She married my great uncle Sidney, the violin virtuoso and they made their home in the Midwest. But Sidney died very young and this remarkable woman went to work, as a professor of music at Ball State. For forty years. Summer breaks she drove to Colorado to play the violin in the symphony during opera season. And with the help of her extended family and family of friends, she raised five exceptional children. Musicians all. My cousins.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Dinner at the deli. Left to right: Lexi, my husband Craig, me, Noelle, Dan, Anthony, Patricia and Blythe.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

On this trip to Indianapolis, I am meeting Patricia, two of her daughters, Noelle and Blythe, Dan-The-Hunk (Noelle\u2019s husband), Anthony, their tennis-champion son, and wild and wonderful Lexi, Blythe\u2019s son. Gather these people in one room and let me tell you, it\u2019s a party.<\/p>\n

And party we do, our first night with THE FAMILY. Jet-lagged, bedazzled and pinching myself so I don\u2019t think I\u2019m imagining all this, we gather around a gigantic mouth-watering salad of everything-but-the-kitchen sink.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Patricia and either Gidget or Bo…<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Of course we talk about music and the family and the weather and music. And music. The ghosts of Beethoven and Handel and Mozart are hovering overhead. Then Craig and I grab our ukuleles and share a little aloha. These accomplished classical musicians are generous with their attention and genuinely interest in our wonderful little instruments.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s funny, but when people \u201cdis\u201d the ukulele, they say something nutso like, \u201caw\u2026it only has \u201cfour strings<\/em>,\u201d I remind them that a violin has four strings and so does a cello and a bass. Okay you won\u2019t find a cello for sale at Toys R Us or Costco, but there are virtuosos out there who make one ukulele sound like an orchestra.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve been working on an arrangement for \u201cDueling Banjos\u201d where, if you pardon the pun, I play with myself<\/em>. On one ukulele. It\u2019s not quite under my fingers yet, but I know from experience that when I play something in front of other people, and make a mistake, that is one mistake I won\u2019t make again. Granted I\u2019ll make other mistakes, but something happens in the synapses of my brain when I goof up \u201cin the village.\u201d It\u2019s a painful but thoroughly effective way of learning.<\/p>\n

So I launch into the familiar Deliverance Theme \u201cda-da-da, da-da.\u201d And oh, I\u2019m doing so well too. Until I get to the big finale. That\u2019s when my fingers go right instead of left. What is supposed to be a foot-stomping WOWEE moment ends in a thud.<\/p>\n

There is a second or two of silence. But it\u2019s okay because everyone in that room makes mistakes and then begins again. That is what is all about, being a musician. Very softly, and in a way that is so kind, Patricia says \u201cnow just do that ending again.\u201d And this time I nail it. Ever the teacher, this one, and by the end of our trip, my new mama too.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Patricia gets cozy with my ukulele.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Our last day in Indianapolis I give her a great big hug \u201cgoodbye\u201d and tell her she is like a mother to me and she replies \u201cand you are my daughter.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This post is part 3 of 11 in the series, \u201cMarvelous Midwest,\u201d about discovering my extended family in Indiana and \u201cukeing\u201d it up in Missouri.\u00a0 For those of you joining this\u00a0miniseries\u00a0midstream, let me catch you up. My husband Craig and I flew into Indianapolis from Los Angeles. My first trip to the \u201cmiddle.\u201d We met and totally fell in love with a branch of my family that, up to very recently, I didn\u2019t even know existed. And visa-versa. It\u2019s an … Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":322,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","kt_blocks_editor_width":"","_kad_blocks_custom_css":"","_kad_blocks_head_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_body_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_footer_custom_js":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2,37],"tags":[38,39,40,32,41,42],"class_list":["post-321","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blogentry","category-midwest","tag-cousins","tag-dueling-banjos","tag-family","tag-mother","tag-ukulele","tag-violin"],"taxonomy_info":{"category":[{"value":2,"label":"blog entry"},{"value":37,"label":"midwest"}],"post_tag":[{"value":38,"label":"cousins"},{"value":39,"label":"Dueling Banjos"},{"value":40,"label":"family"},{"value":32,"label":"mother"},{"value":41,"label":"ukulele"},{"value":42,"label":"violin"}]},"featured_image_src_large":false,"author_info":{"display_name":"Cali Rose","author_link":"https:\/\/calirose.com\/wackyworld\/author\/crbauthor\/"},"comment_info":4,"category_info":[{"term_id":2,"name":"blog entry","slug":"blogentry","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":2,"taxonomy":"category","description":"","parent":0,"count":138,"filter":"raw","cat_ID":2,"category_count":138,"category_description":"","cat_name":"blog entry","category_nicename":"blogentry","category_parent":0},{"term_id":37,"name":"midwest","slug":"midwest","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":37,"taxonomy":"category","description":"","parent":0,"count":11,"filter":"raw","cat_ID":37,"category_count":11,"category_description":"","cat_name":"midwest","category_nicename":"midwest","category_parent":0}],"tag_info":[{"term_id":38,"name":"cousins","slug":"cousins","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":38,"taxonomy":"post_tag","description":"","parent":0,"count":1,"filter":"raw"},{"term_id":39,"name":"Dueling Banjos","slug":"dueling-banjos","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":39,"taxonomy":"post_tag","description":"","parent":0,"count":1,"filter":"raw"},{"term_id":40,"name":"family","slug":"family","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":40,"taxonomy":"post_tag","description":"","parent":0,"count":2,"filter":"raw"},{"term_id":32,"name":"mother","slug":"mother","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":32,"taxonomy":"post_tag","description":"","parent":0,"count":2,"filter":"raw"},{"term_id":41,"name":"ukulele","slug":"ukulele","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":41,"taxonomy":"post_tag","description":"","parent":0,"count":15,"filter":"raw"},{"term_id":42,"name":"violin","slug":"violin","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":42,"taxonomy":"post_tag","description":"","parent":0,"count":1,"filter":"raw"}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/calirose.com\/wackyworld\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/321","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/calirose.com\/wackyworld\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/calirose.com\/wackyworld\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/calirose.com\/wackyworld\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/calirose.com\/wackyworld\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=321"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/calirose.com\/wackyworld\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/321\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/calirose.com\/wackyworld\/wp-json\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/calirose.com\/wackyworld\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=321"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/calirose.com\/wackyworld\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=321"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/calirose.com\/wackyworld\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=321"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}