Shaw I think you are spot on with that last paragraph. I have always advised my D that way, too.
MP I am neither drunk nor part of the young crowd, but I loved your dress!
You’re preaching to the choir, Shaw. I’ve told my Ds that their entire lives.
My first husband told me that he wanted to be single again 3 weeks after we had bought a new house. My first question was not “Is there another woman?” It was “Why did we buy this house??!!!” We had sold our starter home easily for a decent profit. We could have split the profit and gone our separate ways but no, the weasel let us commit to the new house, knowing he was having an affair and wanted out of the marriage. Fortunately, I am financially conservative and it wasn’t a house payment that absolutely required both incomes, but things were tight for quite a while.
Also agree Shaw. My Mother was divorced from my father when I was just an infant. Divorced my step-father way to late in my opinion. She overlooked a lot let me just say. Luckily she was able to support us both with the first divorce although we did move in with my grandparents to help with me I think - the second divorce I was already married and had one child with another on the way. She should have divorced him when I was in my early teens – she put up with a lot and I think we would have been better off without him both emotionally and financially.
Because of this perhaps I have always even maintained my own bank account and credit cards that my H doesn’t have. I have all of his but I also have my own. He gets it and knows that if I “feel” financially okay I’m better for it. 
I mentioned earlier that I had been having strange problems with my laptop being unable to connect to
Google with Chrome. I tried multiple fixes listed online to no avail. I was getting ready to get professional help when it corrected itself! No more error messages, no super slow connections and no more frustration! I guess the computer gremlins got bored at my place! 
Yay!
Satan is not omnipresent. It was time for his demons to torment someone else.
So happy to hear your wedding report, MP!
We drove up to Maine yesterday afternoon. Today is baccalaureate and tomorrow is commencement for S. Dinner tonight is the school’s traditional lobster bake! The forecast has been changing every day, but at this moment no rain and nice temperatures are forecasted. Woo hoo!
On Tuesday I splurged and got my hair cut by a real-life celebrity stylist. A friend (my age) used him and her hair looked fabulous. I’ve never spent this much for a haircut, but I hadn’t had my hair cut since September so if I had been having it cut every 6-8 weeks I would have spent more. He does makeovers on TV and is good at determining flattering hairstyles for your age, lifestyle, face, hair type, etc. Bonus: he comes to your place (house call). I’m very happy with the results. Of course I haven’t quite been able to get it to look as wonderful as it did when he styled it (yet).
Hope everyone has a nice Memorial Day Weekend!
Hope the weather is good for the graduation c_q. It should be gorgeous there! Congrats to your S.
Congratulations to your son, c_q! Very exciting.
My S2 is moving to Denver . I’m sad that he’ll no longer be still within a few hours drive of us but excited for his new adventure.
Sounds like a new career opportunity, sevmom? Colorado is a great place to visit in the summer- warm,sunny and not humid.
It is the startup (doing well) he’s been with since last year., FallGirl. A couple of the guys really wanted to move to Denver (siblings there, skiing, just wanted to relocate from DC, etc.), and he and another guy were not so sure about the move but have gone along with it. He seems to be getting a little excited about it though. Has been out there this week looking at neighborhoods, apartments. And it gets him closer to a young woman he’s dating, who is living in California (still a plane ride away of course but she plans to spend a lot of time in Denver as she can work from home most of the time). She is a Computer science grad from Harvey Mudd . So, it will be a nice place to visit. I’ve been to Denver once but it was many years ago.
Have a great graduation weekend, c_q…I remember when he was the little brother still in HS.
Sevmom, there are worse places to go visit your kids that Colorado.
Yes, I agree., missypie. I enjoyed my one visit to Denver ( by train with a rail pass). We visited a friend who lived in Loveland at the time. I worked at Yellowstone for the summer before graduate school and that is a few hours away. Wouldn’t mind getting back there. And Santa Fe, Cheyenne, Mount Rushmore, etc. are within driving distance . I am trying to look at it as a positive but do admit I would like to still have him closer. But, he’s a grown man and needs to do what he feels he needs to do. I’m happy that he seems to be doing well and is excited about life and new opportunities. That’s for sure.
Of my three kids, I think that Son will always live nearby, older D will always live far away and I just don’t know about the younger D. (She talks of LA…)
Wow lots going on. Congrats to MP and her son/bride. They were beaming! You all looked wonderful.
NM have you tried melatonin.
Congrats to Shaw D for passing. I think I would have to study longer. Curious on who she would pick at the school as teachers she liked.
Sev Mom hard to have your child move. Colorado is nice. /my parents lived in Littleton for a while and I visited them.
CQ loved the haircut. well worth the money.
Moda I didn’t graduate just survived the semester. Now to the summer session and I don’t have a placement yet. crazy story I cant post on line.
Hey everyone,
I’m finally back to some semblance of normalcy. We got back from our B-I-G trip to Asia 2 weeks ago, but we’ve been pretty busy ever since. I just quickly skimmed all the posts I’ve missed. Congratulations, condolences, hugs, and hurrahs to all those in need, as appropriate. @missypie - the wedding photos are great! Glad to hear all went well.
The trip was phenomenal – especially the time we spent with our son. I don’t know about the rest of you with sons, but ours is not at all good about staying in touch. This mama needed some face-to-face, in person communication! At the end of our time with him, we accompanied him back to his “home turf” south of Seoul. We saw both his apartment and the AF base – so now I can envision where he is.
We really enjoyed both South Korea and Japan. We walked tons, and climbed many, many stone steps – palaces and temples are always built on “high ground,” either natural or manmade. The food was fabulous, and with almost no white flour carbs to be had, I lost weight! Fortunately there were lots of English speaking, helpful people in both countries. I can get by with my rusty French and Spanish in quite a few countries, but clearly not anywhere in Asia. We had great weather – only 1 day of rain. Spending 4 days in HI on the way home made for a much easier adjustment coming back across the International Date Line – we actually got to enjoy Friday, May 6 twice! It didn’t really sink in before we left on this adventure, but we “bookended” World War II by visiting both Hiroshima and Pearl Harbor. Plus we visited the United Nations Memorial Cemetery in Busan, Korea (for United Nations Command casualties of the Korean War) and the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific in Honolulu. Very, very sobering, especially as parents with a son in the military. Far too many men (and women) dying in wars/conflicts.
ANYWAY, now we’re back and have “relocated” to our place at the beach in RI. We’re pretty much in a pattern of 6 months in MA and 6 months in RI – with a number of trips back and forth as needed. Last weekend we were actually back in MA hosting our good friends from Boulder (we went to Spain with them in the fall) who were in town for a wedding. And, my ladies golf group has started league play for the season. My first outing last week was a bit of a disaster, but I did much better this week.
D and her fiancé took care of our pup while we were gone. She (pup) managed to chew up D’s nighttime mouth guard – for the 2nd time! The 1st time, back in Dec., I didn’t offer to pay for a replacement since D left the guard in a spot easily accessible by our crazy pup. This time, though, the dog jumped up on their bed to get at the mouth guard at the back of the nightstand. (The dog is not allowed on any furniture and NEVER jumps up on beds with us.) So, I told D I’d pay. Luckily for us, her dentist gave her the “the dog ate your mouth guard twice” discount!
Speaking of D – the wedding planning slowly continues. We have the date, venue, photographer, DJ, and wedding coordinator. D and fiance have done almost all of it – I’ve written several checks. One of my best friend’s D is getting married this October. The latest info I got was she (the D) wants a full length veil (Is that a Chapel Veil?) to the tune of $1200.00! This is so NOT happening with our D – and not just because the wedding is taking place in an outdoor chapel at a camp. Yikes!!
Hope everyone has a great weekend!
Welcome back, CBB! Sounds like an awesome trip. I hear you on the S not communicating, we hear from ours when there is a money issue, but not much else!
Your D sounds like she has quite a bit lined up for the wedding. The one place we saved money was on a veil - D did not want one at all.
D, SIL and a friend of theirs are here for the weekend. One of SIL’s friends is getting married tomorrow a few miles away. Speaking of SIL - he will be changing jobs in a few weeks , still in health care management , but a different opportunity and one with better hours and more pay. He is very excited to get this new job.
After 2 back to back weekends out of town I am happy to be home.
CBB – what a wonderful trip. Glad you were able to go.
We’re settled in for a crazy weekend – huge race on Monday basically blocks us in, and a large festival all weekend makes egress a challenge. Still, it is nice, and I now have a bag full of weeds to my credit. Which is different than the bag full of weed being sold left and right around here.
We head to NYC next week, and I’m now glumly trying to figure out how early we need to leave for the airport for our 8:15 flight. TSA has added lots of overtime for the holiday weekend, but that makes me think that by Thursday many of those folks will be needed a day off. OTOH, I have no great interest in getting out of here at 4:00 am. We’re a solid hour from the airport. Grump.
Back at the beach after a quick trip to Fairfield County, CT for a graduation party last night. We stayed overnight and then drove to my hometown in western MA this morning in time for church at 10:00. After the service the carillons we gave in memory of my mother were dedicated. At the very last minute my father decided someone from the family should say something, and he picked me. (What? I have 2 older brothers! Thanks, Dad.) All’s well that ends well, though – D said I did a nice job. Then off to brunch for my father’s 88th birthday. Then the drive back here.
Tomorrow it’s supposed to rain, so I guess I’ll continue with the indoor cleaning. The weeds are out of control, but I’m not doing that in the rain!
Carillons in memory of your mother, CBB? I love that!
Friday night we had the new in-laws over for dinner to talk about how well the wedding went. Son and DIL stopped by late to watch the wedding DVD so it was a late night. Saturday I kept my “rest up vow” and did nothing. Changed from my jammies to my swim suit, finally put on real clothes at 4. Yesterday was supposed to be a super-fun day - church, then a WNBA game, then a musical…it was fine, but our power was out for about 12 hours due to an overnight lightning strike nearby, so I had to start the day without my hot shower, fresh hair, coffee, etc. I felt out of sorts all day but it was still fine. Today I have to do the last of the wedding clean up and write some thank you notes.
Growing up, we would travel to the cemeteries where the departed relatives were to decorate the graves. I don’t recall a military component. It was Decoration Day and we’d try to find as many of the old family graves as we could (searching for grave of the infant son a great uncle always became somewhat of a game.) I really liked those old cemeteries…some had photographs and letters encased on them. I guess I had a strong appreciation of history even back then.
Remembering those who died in the service of our country and all of our departed friends and family.
Yup, rainy as predicted. I got from my Mexico City/Calgary troop Thursday night and starting with my workout on Friday, my assistant had me booked with calls continuously until 5 when we had to leave for dinner at a friend’s and meet a really interesting new couple --leading scientists of the brain and a literature professor. Then Shawwife went nuts with scheduling. Brunch in Cambridge with friends followed by his/here’s massages followed by a great play-- In the Body of the World, written and performed by Eve Ensler, author of The Vagina Monologues. The next morning, breakfast in procurement with her mentor at RISD, shop at Costco and then for old friends for dinner at our house. Today, our Italophile friend and the lit professor are here for breakfast, where they are planning a trip led by Shawwife to Italy to teach painting and get a guided tour of the Venice Biennale. Then a friend’s son is coming over for career advice. Then a friend who is relaunching after a start-up failure. Then dinner with a VC and his wife who we became friends with in California.
I had three things I wanted to do this weekend:. Buy a bike, get my glasses adjusted, and take a suit in to be tailored. I had told Shawwife about them at the beginning of the weekend, but I won’t get any of them done as I careen from event to event.