bald and folky

i'm back from old songs, it is true. i did have a good time with my mom, only slightly tarnished by marty showing up on saturday and offering to take me to the airport sunday. but he stayed in a hotel (he doesn't camp) and i wasn't required to take his offer, so all ended well on that front.
my fiddle stood the trip just fine and i learned things in each of my 3 fiddle workshops. i'm all inspired now and want to persue more fiddling. fiddling in chicago can happen, and i think it's something i should commit some of my savings towards. the tin whistle workshop made me feel better, too. it's much easier to learn!!
the music was constant and good as always and expected. i'm not the buy the cd and listen to the fiddler all day long, but i really like live roots music. it's just not as pungent when dried.
dancing was fun, too. contra is so strenuous compared to square dancing. also it's so late- the evening concert lasts till midnight and the contra is for 2 hrs after that. so bedtime at 2AM and waking up for sacred harp sing at 9 (and hot tent syndrome making time for yoga and breakfast before that) makes for a tired grumpy caitlin. i'm still not recovered.
mom's camping pals are fun. the last time i was there i felt like a kid and a hanger on, so it was fun to be a grown up and be able to make conversation and chill and be responsible and stuff. her buddy bob and his friend phil are such interesting people and committed campers, so they gave us a pretty gourmet (and dry in the face of thunderstorms) experience.
so. about mom. a couple of weeks ago she decided to do the radiation because of the chemo not crossing the blood brain barrier, and when she got her baseline scan it showed there were already tumors in her brain. she's all chipper- they're not very big tumors, radiation is so much easier and more friendly than chemo, she feels better, etc- but for me it was the tipping point of facing reality. if she was gonna beat the odds, or have the miracle grandma's praying for, or live so much longer, or have a different, curable type of cancer, she would have started showing signs of such. instead the news keeps getting worse and worse. after all the misery of chemo she has tumors in her BRAIN. it's really really sad for me, i think the brain tumors are the point where i can't be in denial any longer. her good mood changed a bit at the festival, too, when her hair started falling out again, her radiation burns itched, and she was sick one morning. i said i'd shave my head in sympathy, and she said i shouldn't, it's no biggy, but then she was pretty upset when it started falling out again. i was glad i had shaved my head. it's cool and wigs are fun. i bought a blue one and a pink one to send to my sister. they are really good at keeping the head warm on those cool summer nights.