GRYDUATION NEWS

Just a brief update today. Then it’s back to the interminable prep-work for this gryduation. That’s not a typo...it’s what I’ve called these events ever since my sister Susan bought this misspelled banner for her first graduating child. She hung it anyway, and used it for the gryduations of her younger three kids as well. So it’s been gryduation to me ever since. She’s also the sister who got an initial necklace one Christmas from her husband, but the letter was an F instead of an S. So we still call her Fusan occasionally. This family can beat a dead horse like no other.

But back to family news. Emily finished writing her Val speech and it’s pretty good but the one I wrote for her is better. I made my own bad self cry three times while writing it. But for some reason she thought she needed to write her own. She doesn’t seem to understand my need to live vicariously through her. I mean, if it hadn’t been for those B’s I kept getting in P.E. (because I couldn’t do a stupid roundoff or cartwheel) I would have been speaking at my own gryduation back in ‘76, so the least she could do is let me write the speech. But kids are so selfish these days.

In other Emily news, she has a bruised lip and a sore elbow, from two SEPARATE encounters with a car door. I just hope she makes it to gryduation without further incident. Is there a 12-step program for klutzes?

I don’t have much on Rachel today. Only that she walked in while I was cleaning the stove top this afternoon and said, "Oh, I like to do that!" So being the unselfish mother that I am, I stopped scrubbing immediately and told her I’d leave it for her.

In the "good news for the whole world" category, David has finally agreed that his AXE body spray must go. Emily likes to share a fun memory of her middle school days, when they were heading home from a basketball game and the boys in the back of the bus started spraying their AXE and setting it on fire. She wasn’t too worried about the fire hazard, but she said the smell of the body spray nearly did her in. Other than its being highly flammable, I simply cannot understand the fascination middle school boys have with this stuff. So I am happy David has outgrown it just in time for high school.

Of course, I do have a bit of bad news. As I was bringing the AXE can downstairs to dispose of it this morning, I accidently sprayed my hair with it. I didn’t have time for a shower so I just tried to cover it up with hair spray. And amazingly no one shunned me at the office.

Dave has a new obsession with the old bricks that the basement guys took off our foundation. He is putting them all over our yard. They are here, there and everywhere...in little arrangements. Every night when I get home, there are more bricks in more places. And the worst news is, he keeps asking me what I think. And the trouble is I can't really think about it until after the gryduation.

Speaking of the office, yesterday an 85-year-old client of mine finished her business with me and then started reminiscing about her days in the Army Nursing Corp during WWII. She told some interesting stories, and then mentioned two family members that were killed while in the service, one by sniper attack and the other by friendly fire. Twice she teared up, and so did I. As she left, she apologized for "boring" me with her stories. She couldn’t have been more wrong. My job is often stressful and frustrating and maddening. But every once in awhile, it offers me an unexpected pearl. Listening to this precious lady’s family history made me thankful that I was a lawyer, at least for that one day.

And I had a turkey and spinach sandwich for lunch today, and it was delicious.