I want to be the BOSS!

When Ellie was about 3, she said she couldn't wait to be a mom. When we asked her why, she replied (while pumping her arm up and down), "I want to be the boss!" Well, Ellie got to be the "boss" Friday night. At our EVYS concert, I sat down in the audience after helping backstage and my parents informed me that Ellie was going to be the Concertmaster, a fact that had somehow eluded me. We were laughing at how this would be perfect for her, when I remembered that she was missing a button on her shirt. (And we won't go into detail on how long that button has been missing. It suffices to say that the mind tends to get erased between each Friday concert and Monday laundry day.) So now the laughing turns to subtle panic. The Concertmaster enters after the orchestra is seated and gives the opening note in front of everyone. But, no worries, my mom informed me,

"She has pinned her shirt together with her ACADEMIC PIN!!"

We had already lost the back, so she had slipped the pin inside her shirt with the sharp part sticking out of her shirt. Before I can begin to envision the pin dropping to the floor with a clank, or worse, getting stuck in her skirt waist, I see Ellie waltzing across the stage, brimming with confidence, bowing before the audience and playing her note. Phew! What a professional!