Addendum.

“I think there's a difference between ditzy and dumb. Dumb is just not knowing. Ditzy is having the courage to ask!” Jessica Simpson


There's a reason Ditz got the nickname she has ~ & she don't like it. She floats this idea past me every few months where I change her on~line name to...oh, I don't know ~ Bubbles, or Fizz or something that sounds like she's a hood out of A Streetcar Named Desire.


I have trouble visualising her as anything but Ditz so the idea floats past & nothing happens except that shortly afterwards I roll my eyes & think, 'Yep; pegged it in one!' So here's the latest storm in a tea~cup, Much~ado~about~nothing according to Ditz.


Last night there was the concert that Ditz didn't want to do but off we toddled & in the back of my mind, where I keep my on~mind diary I thought there'd be this gap between the kids finishing up & any boat we could possibly catch so it was a leisurely drive home with a detour through whatever drive~through was open for food. I don't know what it is about singing but it makes Ditz absolutely ravenous & the first thing she says when she comes off~stage is, "I'm starving! Can we go eat?"


All that changed when the kids finished 20 minutes early. It meant if I hustled Ditz along we could make the earlier boat & that would be a very good thing because Ditz had to be up early to be on a boat for her singing lesson next morning. Food to be had at home so I hustled Ditz along & we piled into the car & made our boat with a respectable amount of time for a sedate walk to the jetty from our park.


I consulted my on~mind diary & made a note to remind Ditz her exam music with photocopies, was still sitting on the computer desk & she needed to put it in her music folder before we left in the morning because she would need it. When I mentioned it to Ditz she answered breezily that she had already filed everything & it was all in her folder & her folder was in her shoulder bag where it always was. She was good to go. I breathed a sigh of relief because getting either of us functional the morning after a concert is on the hit & miss side of things ~ more miss than hit.


Fast forward to this morning as we're in the island car driving to the jetty. Ditz, who had left her bag in the car ready for the morning, reached into it for the hair brush she keeps on hand [both my girls regularly dressing in the car en route to various appointments] & there was a sudden, alarmed silence. I breathed. I know Alison has sheet music & Ditz is supposed to know her words by now but the silence went on & on. If you know Ditz you know silence is an unnatural occurrence.


"What?!" I barked, not sure I wanted an answer.


"I left my music at the school last night."


Her entire repertoire! Exam music ~ with photocopies! Her exam details. Her registration sheet. Three years worth of sheet music. Now I was silent too. Less unusual with me but ominous. I was thinking frantically. We had no option but to continue on to the lesson & hope for the best. Ditz got butterflies because I told her she'd have to confess to Alison herself. What we were to do if no~one in the ensemble had picked it up & hung onto it I had no idea.


Ditz, having decided she was dead where she stood, was cheerfully contemplating the various ways in which she was about to die but despite various imaginative scenarios she was way off the mark.


As she walked into the studio her eyes whizzed around the room looking for any sign of the tell~tale folder. She studied the room carefully as Alison finished up with her previous student. No folder. As Ditz began her garbled confession with, " I think I...no, I know I left.. ."Alison had to turn her back to hide her snigger. Ditz let out a whoosh of relief! No Alison didn't have her folder but one of the boys had picked it up & we can retrieve it at tomorrow's rehearsal!


Now is that Ditzy or what? In fairness Ditz saves these sorts of bru~ha~has for things not important to her ~ like school work. She is usually extremely careful about all her music stuff so this was something of an aberration but true to form. So like Ditz to lose the one essential thing she can't possibly do without on the eve of her examination!