<p>Good morning, all. Congrats, Nana! Zetesis, great to hear from you, but such sad news.</p>
<p>Graduation day went very well. Thank you for all the good wishes and great karma. D was sweet and gracious all day and evening. The big glitch for D was that a few minutes before the processional, the heel of one shoe broke. She said that the teachers were very sweet to her and the other girls were very complimentary about how well she was handling the situtation.She had to break the heel off the other shoe so she could walk at all but as it was, there were 4 nails protruding from each heel and she had to walk a lot - not just across the stage, but back and forth to where the choir was singing. </p>
<p>Having been to two other graduations at this HS, I can say they have added several really nice touches since the first two. D’s Jazz choir sang a very upbeat, fun number that was very well received.</p>
<p>I have to talk about the val and sal speeches. First the Sal. I had never heard of her before. She was with D in middle school but D says there is no reason I would have ever run into her. Her ECs were things like “fluent in Mandarin Chinese” (her parent’s native language) and other things that didn’t take any time away from academics. She appeared to be the stereotypical bookworm; we were all prepared to settle in for a boring speech. Well…the girl rapped her speech, to the music of “Thrift Shop”!!! Very clever lyrics, very well done, very entertaining.</p>
<p>The Val. A covered Muslim girl. I remember when she started wearing a scarf in 7th grade…it was funny to watch her take it off and put it on again as she tried to figure out how to play sports in it. She has grown to be an absolute knock out. Gorgeous. Hair and arms and legs always covered but wearing the hottest shoes! Anyway, her speech was not as entertaining as the Sal’s - she mentioned the many “all night study sessions” and the rest of us were thinking “that is why she is up there and not my kid.” She did get a big laugh when said that the only disappointment she had in high school is that no one ever noticed her new haircut.</p>
<p>Finally, it is a Law of the Universe - as certain as gravity - that if you have no work to do and think your practice has died and will never be revived, all you have to do is schedule a two week trip out of the country, and two days before, you will be deluged with work. So that is where I am. I can work really late tonight but then I am out of here. We are driving to D’s freshman orientation Monday and Tuesday, then off to Barcelona on Wednesday. </p>
<p>RM…How did I miss your post!!! What exciting news! Congratulations to everyone! Love that you will be sewing layette items. Definitely made with love.</p>
<p>Z…missed your post, too! How awful about the accident. Sending prayers their way. Hoping for good healing so you can enjoy your trip. Time flies! What are her plans once she returns to the US? So jealous of your anniversary trip. What a lovely way to celebrate.</p>
<p>mp…glad graduation went as well as could be expected. Ugh on the heel breaking. Enjoy the orientation and trip to Barcelona!!! </p>
<p>FallGirl…hoping to play euchre with friends here at the lake on Saturday. Will be thinking of you! :)</p>
<p>And kudos to mpD on her graduation. Good to hear all went well (except the heel breaking!) when it seemed entirely possible she wouldn’t even be speaking to you, mp. Is she still pleading her case to go see the weasel? Probably a good thing that you all will be gone for a couple of weeks.</p>
<p>Zetesis - how awful! Sending healing thought and prayers to you SIL and BIL.</p>
<p>Moda – yes, I’m also a little confused about who you’re talking about; Daughter, Son-in-Law, or both? I do hope things settle down.</p>
<p>So last night we had a somewhat unique experience – we had just finished eating and I was cleaning up when someone knocked on the front door. The door is basically glass, so you can obviously see immediately who is there. There were 2 younger women and a man, probably in their early 30s; one woman was holding up a bottle of wine; we didn’t know/recognize any of them. After leashing Kiley (puppy) we opened the door; all 3 started gushing about how they LOVED our house; had watched it being built; knew it was probably an imposition but could they possibly see the inside, and we could share a bottle of wine. They probably said it better than I’m making it sound, but you get the idea. H and I looked at each other and silently agreed they probably didn’t pose a threat to us and they weren’t casing the joint – so we invited them in and gave them a tour. And we ended up in the 3rd floor tower drinking wine. The guy is married to one of the women and his aunt has a house in our beach community; the 2nd woman was visiting for the weekend. Very friendly, very nice. After they left H and I had a good chuckle about it.</p>
<p>The issues were with my D, as if everything I said for sure, but even with her dad, annoyed her. But things were not helped by the fact that her H was mostly trying to just speed thru spending time with us the entire time we were there. And while I can see that she wants to stand on her own two feet, etc, she was uncharacteristically snarky. And I am not convinced that this first year hasn’t been a lot harder than either one of them thought or she has led me to believe despite their having lived together nearly five years before they got married. That’s not necessarily a red flag either because that first year is hard and they took on quite a few big changes. And I do know that she usually works ALL the time between two jobs. She said the school she was working at in their after school program has three jobs but won’t hire for any of them until August. Does that sound right for public schools? But I think that would help a great deal because she probably didnt want to do much of ANYTHING in the days she had off. But in the end, it really doesn’t matter what her husband thinks about us per se, because it’s their marriage. But the whole thing did make me a little sad. </p>
<p>Moda - Public schools in my area don’t hire until Aug. So that sounds right to me. Maybe she is just tired. I mean if she is working that much maybe it’s just wearing on her. I know it does on me! They may be on the cusp of a big decision too (new car, house, or something) that is just adding to her stress level. If her H isn’t working the same amount of hours (this from experience). He may not understand that she comes home exhausted and doesn’t want to “play wife” if you know what I mean – anything from cooking dinner to well … fill in the blanks. She may also just be frustrated with her job situation – not getting hired as soon as she had hoped? Just some possibilities – may not be your and your H – she just may feel comfortable enough with you to let some of the frustration escape! Good and bad really!</p>
<p>Moda–yeah, me too with S. He graduates next weekend and as we are paying for the hotel for us/them and restaurant and celebratory lunch for mainly DIL’s family so he will probably be a doll.</p>
<p>MP–sorry about the heel. Are you staying at the same place in Barcelona you told me about and we stayed at last June??</p>
<p>Z–goodness, so hoping she is OK. Wonderful travel plans.</p>
<p>CBB–what a fun story.</p>
<p>RM–congrats. I am Nonnie and H is Poppie. He already has a grandma and grandpa and since he sees us only every few months those names will be more memorable.</p>
<p>KMC–love my Healy Comfort shoes that I learned about from you. I saw them in Palm Springs and as they did not have my size I ordered them from Zappoes.</p>
<p>Shaw–following your S. That was suppose to my kid if I remember correctly.</p>
<p>And everyone else, Dt an Fallgirl and so on --thinking about all of you and following your saga’s.</p>
<p>H retired last Friday but will be in clinic 6 days and informatics 3 days a month. I can already see he is less stressed. I am much more stressed. I am very interrupted in my personal schedule. When I was sitting and doing my usual coffee/checking CC/paying bills and so on he asked me if I was ready to work in the yard. This is going to take some doing. I LOVE being alone. Simply cannot imagine if he had retired and not gone back 1/2 time. Now it is his choice of clinics and days. He is happy and I will no doubt be eventually. I am in my own office 1-2 days a week. May have to plan it so we work some opposite hours.</p>
<p>Before I leave, and why I chose tonight to write, is ask for the Class of 2009’s magic fairy dust. D takes her boards in the morning. She has literally studied 13-15 hours every day minus 1/2 day per week. She has started at 8 and stopped after 11. She is a definite plodder and determined to have choices for her residency. She chose to study here because of our food and my cooking. She is a nice person and totally community and woman’s health motivated. So send your mojo her way!</p>
<p>Sending the good vibes, oregon. And I completely get the being alone thing. I worry about that when H retires.
Have a good trip, MP. Glad to hear that business is picking up even if the timing isn’t the greatest.
CBB- sweet story!</p>
<p>Sending tons of fairy dust for your D, Oregon, and glad you like the shoes don’t envy having the retired guy around but do envy your having someone willing to work in the yard! Send him over…boy could I keep him out of your hair a spell! (Weed whacking the final third of the back meadow awaits me today…then crawling around the terrace in an attempt to hand pull a bunch that have gotten away from me this year.))</p>
<p>Missy, super glad your grad was nice and wishing you a great time in Barcelona!
Fall Girl, wow, 30 lbs for your D…that’s awesome.</p>
<p>And Moda, yes, not only do they not hire til Aug here…in this school board they regularly pink slip half their staff to see who sticks come Aug. My pal is a parapro who used to go through that ever year it seemed.</p>
<p>Fun time wandering around a festival last night with a few folks and then had a friend back who clearly was in need of a good scotch. He has custody of his 3 kids, but the 16 yr old boy with ADHD has been a handful for him. Hs ex came back from Chicago to take said kid for respite and in theory, permanently…but I have a hunch that may not last. He’s had a real struggle finding time for a personal life the last few years. I hope there’s a special place in heaven for this guy. Maybe even a girlfriend one day not scared off by the family circus…he made a few coments that suggest at this point he’s unclear how a new relationship would even be viable, but I can tell he’s ready to start dating again at a party last year, my divorced sister had her eye on him…but I don’t think I’d wish that rolling train wreck on him :)</p>
<p>MP-have a great time in Barcelona. I’m leaving on Monday for London, then a 10 day cruise of the British Isles with my sister. I’ll be gone for 2 weeks. </p>
<p>CC keeps telling me I don’t permission to post; will try again!</p>
<p>Thanks for all the good wishes: SIL is definitely better: conscious; recognizes family, talks to them; a fair amount of pain; some restricted movement. But things seem to be going in the right direction so far.</p>
<p>Glad to hear it Z.
CQ–nice of you to ask. She feels “OK” which is better than “terrible”. We picked her up from the test center with a flask of bourbon and had a toast in the parking lot. She is out with friends tonight.</p>
<p>Oregon! I didn’t get the memo to send fairy dust until just now so I will hope she felt it went really well so the fairy dust can work on the scoring part of things! Im sure she will have done very well. </p>
<p>I totally love alone time. I also prefer me SPACE… which is obviously so lacking right now. </p>
<p>Did I mention we rented a place thru AIrbnb for D2 to stay while she is in town - or for the majority that she’s here? She’s to pull into town tonight after midnight… but in any event, It’s a very cute little efficiency kind of a place/guest house. There is just no way I can pack up this place amid her packing up for going abroad, to say nothing of the fact that we don’t even have a bed for her here. I sure hope they’ve given them some sort of packing list.</p>
<p>I will leave for the nook before she leaves for abroad by about two weeks. </p>
<p>Z horrible news, but glad things have seen some improvement. Will keep your family in my thoughts.</p>
<p>Oh Oregon – hope all went well for D! Several years ago now, H and his partners started working from home. As long as there’s internet and a convenient airport, they’re good to go. I can tell you the first 6 months were touch and go in our house – I was very used to being on my own schedule, coming and going as I pleased. From the get-go H started asking where I was going, what I was doing, etc, etc. It’s not that I was hiding anything, but he was practically grilling me. After the first months we pretty much reached a workable truce. And he definitely knew better than to ask me what was for lunch!</p>
<p>Z – some positive news is always a good thing!</p>
<p>We’re back from our overnight “trip” to my hometown for back-to-back graduation parties. (Yes, the parties of the “graduation party wars” fame.) In the end it all worked out, especially for us since we only had to make one trip. </p>
<p>It’s a beautiful day, and I should be outside finishing the weeding/cultivating, but I really don’t want to stick Kiley back in the crate since she endured that for the car ride up and back, AND while we were at the parties. H. of course, is back working on the sailboat in the shed. Oh well, there’s always tomorrow. </p>
don’t envy having the retired guy around but do envy your having someone willing to work in the yard! Send him over…boy could I keep him out of your hair a spell! (Weed whacking the final third of the back meadow awaits me today…then crawling around the terrace in an attempt to hand pull a bunch that have gotten away from me this year.))</p>
at a party last year, my divorced sister had her eye on him…but I don’t think I’d wish that rolling train wreck on him :)</p>