Thursday, June 6, 2013

Rainy

It's a rainy day today; I awoke with a migraine after a restless night of quasi nightmares.  That tells me that the headache was approaching while I slept.

I've decided to ignore the fact that I have not washed any clothes yet this week (OOOOOH, that is sooo not good), that the house is a mess, and that I need to start planning what's for dinner tonight.  Instead, I've gone back to my cozy bed to rest between a frenetic morning and a booked schedule for later on.

I know that an ignored migraine does not go away.  It only gets worse, and worse can turn into debilitating.

With that, I can justify lying here, listening to a solitary bird whistling a happy tune, with a backdrop of quiet dripping rain.

I'm thankful that today is the last day of school.  I realized as Therese jumped out of the van with her bag full of teacher's farewell gifts, that this was my final time to drop off a child at the elementary school.  For 20 years I've had children at the elementary level, so this is kind of a big deal for me.  One one hand, there is really a lot of relief, and yet, it's a bit like I'm losing an old friend.

At her 'graduation' yesterday, I wondered about us humans.  For twenty years, I've been witnessing certain boorish parental behaviors that have long since grown old.

When Therese's class was called to stand up, many of the parents rushed to be closer to the archway to take pictures of their children as they passed through it.  They were invited to do so, and I have no problem with that.  But, I was seated on the bleachers and decided to stay put and snap a photo from there.  One of the fathers planted himself square in front of the archway, with his back to the bleachers, preventing me from seeing my child when she arrived to get her diploma.  I had to slide over to snap a picture, and he still shows up in the photo. 

Now, I appreciate that he wanted a good place to get a photo of his daughter, but maybe he should remember that other parents love their children, too!  Would it have killed him to crouch down until the time his daughter was receiving her certificate?

I've grown weary over the past couple of decades with this kind of rudeness.  I see it over and over and over.

Tonight I will witness Maria graduating from high school.  I'm so proud of her; she worked darned hard through her entire school career.  I think back to the day she walked across the elementary gym to get her kindergarten graduation diploma.  How adorable she looked in a blush pink party dress made of tulle and satin, with a mortarboard cap on her head that couldn't stay put.  I laughed and cried all at once!

It did not help that I was in the first trimester of pregnancy with Therese and my hormones were on hyper drive.  I went through a lot of tissues that day.

Maria has had a busy senior year--directing her first play in the fall, starring in the Spring Musical, singing in the choir and chamber choir, enjoying Homecoming and Prom, all the while keeping her grades up to graduate in the elite top 10 of her class. 

That little girl with the slippery hat has grown into a young woman!  I hope she has better success in keeping her cap on tonight!  (Which makes me laugh at another memory--when Tony graduated from kindergarten, an adult helper taped the top of the inside of his cap to his hair!  It was a painful experience when he tried to take his hat off!)

HUGSxxxAnnie













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