The Queen of Bad Television is back in town!

My niece is here for a few days to take her dental school exam, and she is now a college graduate! It is always so wonderful and quirky when she comes. Friday night we watched Glee and Friday Night Lights and she tried to interest us in Cougar Town. (She's already infected us with Say Yes to the Dress and Millionaire Matchmaker.) She and my daughter fall into their usual weird happy language of hugs and squeals and it's lovely when they are together.

Saturday we went shopping for a graduation dress for my daughter and she also got some rather good-looking business attire since we have a night-before meltdown every time she has to pull of business casual (which she sometimes has to for her scholar program and also had to for her college overnight, after which she wailed "All the girls had on pencil skirts and button downs and I was wearing a sundress!"). Well, girlfriend is ready now. Then last night we went to a dance concert at Fieldston, where one of my other "daughters" was choreographing and performing, and she was a star! My niece stayed home to do a DAT practice test; that's the dental school entrance exam, which she's taking on Monday.

Now the two girls are in the kitchen, barring me from entering, playing music on the laptop and making brunch for me for Mother's Day. It involves champagne flutes and fancy serving dishes taken down from a high place. My coffee was delivered to me just the way I like it—"Should I make it to my winter color or my summer color?" my niece asked. Now salsa music is playing, my daughter is at the stove with a cloth over her shoulder, and my niece is doing something with strawberries, and every so often they break out dancing. Just watching them work and play together is my true gift.

Later my loves and I will wander through a craft fair and tonight, we all gather with friends in a garden for pot luck. Maybe this "flow" initiative is working. In any case, it's a beautiful Sunday.