Tuesday, June 29, 2010

Life is good....

I got to see Mary Ellen last night at a Girls' Night Out along with her college roommate Judy. They roomed together for 4 years at college. I feel so fortunate that they allow me to tag along! Seriously, I treasure both of them. They are wise, accomplished and loving women who enrich my life.

My son comes home from his trip today. I can't wait to see him! From the few messages I got while he was gone, it looks like he had a fantastic time. We paid for the trip and he provided the spending money. He took a travel visa card - and apparently didn't spend any money beyond the cash he had in his pocket. The chaperones had talked to the parents at a meeting about sitting down with the students and discussing spending. They were concerned about the students spending too much money! I guess I should have had the conversation with boy-o that spending money was OK. I imagine he came home with more money than everyone else. Perhaps as much money as the rest of the students combined! Yes, cheap describes my son pretty well.

I got my t-shirt yesterday from Heather. I can't wait for casual Friday to wear it to work. She makes it so easy to order and it came lickety split. I will wear it and think of her and her battle.

We have been working on opening the swimming pool because it has been very warm in Maine this year. Last summer, it rained all summer long and we never bothered to open the pool. It looks so inviting! I can't wait to get in it tonight!

I have next week off. We don't have any real plans beyond enjoying the great State of Maine. Normally we try to go away for vacation but we need to stay close for to get boy-o to work. We are planning a day trip to Boston, a day cruise out of Portsmouth (NH) Harbor and maybe, just maybe, I will get my upstairs bathroom painted.

My boss is buying us lunch today. Once a month, he treats the staff to sandwiches from a local restaurant. Yummy!

I am off to work to finish things up so I can take next week off. Here is to enjoying life!

Wednesday, June 23, 2010

I am back....

Wow! The end of school madness did me in this year... and boy-o is (was?) only a sophomore! I can't even think what it will be like in two years when he is graduating. Note to all. You might want to consider buying stock in Kleenex. I anticipate a big bump in sales in about two years. Just sayin'.

The social studies department at my son's high school does an event called the "History Extravaganza" instead of having a final. The students write a paper and then do a tri-fold and presentation one evening. All social studies students in the school participate. I skipped karate one night to go see my son. I walked into the gym to where my son's class had their posters set up. He came over and told me that he hadn't presented yet and he would prefer that I not be there. I ended up going out into the main lobby and giving directions to other parents. I did manage to sneak back into the gym a few times to look around and see what his classmates were doing. Apparently after I spoke to one classmate, he went over to see what I talked to her about. He was concerned that I might have said something embarrassing. Who? Me? Can you imagine?

Last week, I received my green belt in karate. I had to write a paper on the history of karate (8 pages, thank you very much) and also had a test where I had to show my stuff as they say. I will admit that I worked very hard on my katas. I will never be the most skilled martial artist but for an out of shape over-weight old lady, I do OK.

My son left Monday afternoon for his (delayed) school trip to Germany. When we dropped them off in April for the trip that ended up being cancelled, the parents and students were all pretty incredulous and stressed. We wondered if the trip would leave or if it left, if they would get stranded somewhere. This time, everyone was much more relaxed. The general consensus from all the parents was that we wanted to leave them home and go instead! It is great to see the opportunities that our children have to travel.

How does my dog know it is summer vacation? During the school year, she bounds out of bed and pesters me until we take boy-o to school. She is practically running laps in excitement. Once summer vacation comes, however, it is all I can do to drag her out of bed to make her go outside before I leave for work. I would understand it if she was hopeful for a week or so and figured it out but, somehow, every year, she figures it out from the first day of summer vacation. She also gets up with great excitement the first day of school. How-on-earth-does-she-know? She is going to be disappointed next year, however, when boy-o drives himself to school. Yup. He will probably get his license this summer. On the day of his last final this year, I commented that it was probably my last day of driving him to school. Needless to say, my reaction and his reaction to that news was a bit different.

That is it for today. Here's to having a bit more time in the mornings.