Summa Cum Laude

Precious Daughters - Bullet Edition

• Precious Youngest is home for the summer.
• It took two vehicles to get all her shit home in one trip.
• Her dorm room wasn’t that big. One wonders how they fit all that stuff in the room all year.
• Priority one is finding a summer job.
• Well, from OUR perspective.
• The real priority one is getting some sleep.
• Priority two is cleaning out the shit hole she calls her room.
• Well, that’s MY priority two.
• The real priority two is catching up with The Pie and friends.
• Precious Oldest is not coming home this summer
• She has a job on campus that pays well and will allow her time to take a six hundred level class she would not otherwise be able to fit in her schedule.
• Let’s allow that to sink in a bit shall we?
• Precious Oldest is not coming home this summer.
• Six young men we have known ALL THEIR LIVES are graduating this week end. Five high school; one college.
• That makes me feel incredibly old.
• I've got nothing else except sweetbabyjesusu enough with the rain already!!!!

Warning

God! Don't you hate people who brag incessantly about their children? So smart, so pretty, so athletic, so nice, so handsome, great voice, great jump shot, superior intelligence? To hear them tell it it's all rainbows and unicorns over in their perfect world with their perfect family. Don't you HATE that?

If you do I give you fair warning.

Move on.

There is severe bragging ahead.

Precious Youngest graduated with a 4.3 GPA. (Still only put her 12th in the class!) She was awarded the Debate departmental award and the Silver Service award for community service hours far above what was required to graduate.

She had eleven photographs published in the school's fine arts and literary magazine. Seven were full page. There were no other full page photographs published in the edition. I'm just sayin'.

We gave this print to Precious Youngest:



"There has never been a day when I have not been proud of you, I said, though some days I'm louder about other stuff so it's easy to miss that. " - Brian Andreas

We are proud. Every day.

Succinct

If a picture is worth a thousand words than this sums up, perfectly, our last four years with Precious Youngest:

Perfectly!

Graduation

Precious Youngest took her last final this morning. She left soon after for her Senior Retreat. Saturday is the Baccalaureate Mass and Sunday is Graduation.

The Saint and I each wrote a letter to send for the retreat. I bawled the whole time I was writing so I can't imagine what a mess I'm going to be by Sunday afternoon.

In the meantime, I'm keeping busy. Tomorrow we are hosting a joint graduation party for Precious Youngest and my niece. 80 of our nearest and dearest. The food is going to be awesome and of course since we are Catholic there will be a bar. Hush, we don't let the teenagers drink!

I'll be back with reflections on the past four years, but I'm afraid if I start now I'll never stop crying. Oh, and if you're in the neighborhood on Friday? Stop by, there's always room at our table!

They designed and produced the invite themselves - aren't they darling? Of course it looked better with all the pertinent details, but still!

1980

In 1980 Jimmy Carter was President. A first class stamp cost 15 cents. The Winter Olympics were held in Moscow. The United Sates did not participate. Kramer vs. Kramer won the Oscar for best picture. The Phillies beat the Royals in the World Series. 52nd Street by Billy Joel won album of the year at the Grammys. I turned eighteen.

I graduated from high school in 1980. I was seventeen years old. Guess what my summer job was?

I'll wait.....

You'll never guess.....

OK, I'll tell you.

I was a runner for the Sedgwick Group on the floor of Lloyd's of London. That's right folks. At the ripe old age of seventeen my parents put me on a plane, alone, to go live in London for two and a half months. In a rented room of a stranger's flat. Riding the tube to the office everyday. To collect placing and signing slips to be taken to the floor for signatures. Shit you not.

What was your favorite summer job?