Sunday Salon: 85%

 85%.  That is the portion of his life that my boy child has spent in the school from which he just graduated.  12 years is a long time for anyone to be anywhere.  You can imagine...he wanted out.  Now he is.  There were days (weeks, months) when we weren't sure he would achieve this goal.  If you meet my son, I guarantee you wouldn't ever meet any other kid quite like him.  Perhaps not a personality that totally meshes with a controlling Catholic community, but the dude did it.  I am proud.  

This celebration has been going on all week.  There was a retreat, a dinner, a trip to Busch Gardens, graduation practice, all culminating to a graduation ceremony which happened Friday.  I've been busy, and distracted.  My parents are in town, and it is also my mom's birthday.  If I normally come by your blog and haven't lately, I apologize.

It is weird for me, personally, to be done with this school.  I have contributed hundreds of hours of volunteer time to this place.  Have had MANY teacher/parent meetings, mostly for the boy.  It is a new era.

Random selfie with my daughter and I, in the car ready to eat Japanese Hibachi as a graduation celebration.  Because it isn't completely about the boy.    

Three more days of school for the girl...finals.  So we have drama and emotion going on.  But soon it will be over.  Next year she will be a junior.  For all of you that have littles, hug them and appreciate the simplicity and innocence.  It is a cliche, but they grow up in the blink of an eye.  This is a true statement.

I've been listening to audios of course, in all my running around.  I finished "Scarlet" by Marissa Meyer, her second installment in the Lunar Chronicles.  Still silly and predictable, but I have become more invested in the series.  Plots thicken.  I probably would appreciate it more if I were 15 or 20 years old, but it isn't a bad bit of entertainment.  I am now a few hours into "Five Days at Memorial", an expose on the conditions of a hospital in New Orleans in the aftermath of Katrina.  Good but unnerving stuff.

In print I read "Angel's Gate" by Anne Carter (nee Pam Ripling), part of a historical supernatural mystery series that involves lighthouses. This is the third installment, and they are awesome.  I also quickly read "Hidden:  A Child's Story of the Holocaust" which is a graphic novel that very superficially covers this tragedy for the benefit of the young reader.  I also quickly read "We Were Liars" by E. Lockhart, the IT book to read this summer.  I loved it for a million reasons...if you want them, just click through to my link.  You definitely must pick this one up this summer!!!  

Because I love Pam Ripling's writing so much, I dove into the other e-book she sent me called "Unmasking Paulie Bingham", a love story about a bi-sexual glam rocker and his passionate, turbulent relationship with his best friend/wife.  Not your typical love story, but completely un-put-downable.  Pam said her loyal "love story crowd" didn't know quite what to think about this book, but for me personally, it is the anthem to friendship, loyalty, and living the life that helps fulfill who you are as a person.  I can't wait to write about this one on Goodreads.

I'm a little funkish that Game of Thrones isn't on this weekend, but for graduation, I bought my son the Game of Thrones Pop Up Book of Westeros, which is FREAKING AMAZING.  Not only does it have various castles, but it has small pop-ups on the side and histories of each area.  The entire book can be deconstructed into a map-type spread.  We were sprawled out on the floor for hours messing with it.

 

Hope everyone has grand plans for this long weekend.  We saw "Godzilla" yesterday (corny but fun to watch), and would love to also catch the X Men movie as well...maybe Monday.  We are also thinking about a round of golf, and some grilling and swimming in the pool.

Here is to the upcoming end of May!