Finding her way

Bella starts kindergarten next week, so this is our last Baba Day before her life changes. It won't be a shocking change, as she attended pre-K this year and has some idea of what school is like, but she will be in school till 4 p.m., so we won't have regular days together. I am keeping my fears and hopes to myself, and meanwhile I'll be keeping her and her brother while her parents both work this coming Friday and Sunday.

She had an audition yesterday for a commercial to be filmed in Portland. I asked her how she felt about it, and she reported matter-of-factly: "If they like me, I get to make money like a grownup. If they don't like me...(shrugging her shoulders). They told me to do a standing cartwheel and say some words, and I did a good job." I wish all the actors I have trained over the years had that attitude of confidence and self-affirmation.

I completely forgot to check my settings before we went out to explore the neighborhood, so I overexposed this shot of her strolling down a graffiti-laden alleyway with a stuffed animal in her left hand and a jeweled mirror in her right, but I like the intense, almost dream-like or psychedelic vibrancy of it. She glanced at the graffiti but observed, "This alley smells like potty. Let's get out of here."