Finally, May

And here we go! One last week of classes for the kids. Then early finals. Then graduation practice, a barbecue, the spring fling, all the end of year stuff. Then graduation. And then it's over, and OMG.

I'm panicking. In two weeks we will lose access to the BVSD internal websites, Infinite Campus and Schoology and all that. Is there anything stored in those places that I want to grab before it's gone? What do the kids need from their teachers and counselors before they lose access to them?

It's a strange feeling. Yesterday I remembered about their graduation announcements, which we paid for last fall and then left in a pile on the desk in their room. I wrote notes on 8 of them and mailed them out. I considered sending more (we have 25, the smallest number you could buy), possibly to the bulk of our Christmas card list, but the problem is that then people might feel obligated to send a graduation present or at least a card. I wrote on some of them "no gifts, please" or words to that effect, and then I just cut it short, didn't send any more. So we have 17 announcements that will probably sit around here and there for several years until I finally get rid of them.

Teen B reminded me today that I could have told the recipients of these announcements that the graduation will be live-streamed on YouTube, no need to be there in person. I told him I don't think most people really want to watch a high school graduation on YouTube. But we'll see. I might mention it to a few people. *I* enjoy watching high school graduations on YouTube, so maybe a few other people will too. 

This past week we attended the final concerts for band and orchestra. At the end of the last concert of the year it's traditional for the teacher to introduce the graduating seniors and tell what they're planning to do next year. The orchestra teacher actually had that information printed in the program, along with photos and words of advice to younger musicians from each graduating senior. The band teacher made us sit through EIGHT jazz pieces (there are two jazz bands and they each played four pieces) and then said that there were so many seniors (24) that he didn't have time to talk about each one, so he just had them come up on stage to get a rose, and we clapped for them. Didn't even call out their names. Didn't even have them identified as seniors in the program (which the orchestra teacher did). 

I never do this, but the next day I actually wrote an email to the band teacher telling him how unhappy this made me. I thanked him for four great years, told him how much I'd enjoyed all the concerts, and then assured him that I would have been HAPPY to sit there for another half hour while he introduced each senior and told where they were going next year. I didn't just want Teen B to be introduced, I wanted to hear about all the seniors. After all, I've been listening to them make beautiful music for four years. And also, if the jazz bands had only played THREE pieces each (as the larger bands did), we would have had time for that.

He didn't respond.

Teen A also had his yearly physical this week and although he wanted me to come along, he didn't invite me in to the examination room. So I sat in the waiting room and looked at my phone. Soon, I'm sure, I won't even have to come along. He already goes alone to get his hair cut, although for some reason he likes me to come along for dentist and eye appointments (and sit in the waiting room). Little bit by little bit, the boys are growing up. 

This coming week is the final choir concert and we will probably go to that too, although the weather's supposed to be bad, so I may have some trouble getting Teen B out of the house. Last week the weather was supposed to be bad on a couple of days, but it never materialized, so I have my doubts about this week. But we'll see. I decided to go ahead and get flowers and plant them yesterday. If that makes the bad weather come, so be it! It would be worth it, even if I had to re-buy and re-plant everything. 

Last Thursday, when it was supposed to pour and did nothing, I kept thinking, I should go outside and do yardwork and THEN it would start to rain. But I wasn't feeling great, so I didn't. Should have.

I've been having pain in the back of my left knee for a few weeks, and this past week it got out of hand. It's most painful when I drive, even though that's not my driving leg. Something about the position it gets into is not good. But it comes and goes. Some days I wake up with no pain and it gets worse, other days I wake up in a lot of pain and it gets better (or worse). On Wednesday or Thursday, can't remember which, I got into so much pain that I was practically screaming, so I emailed my doctor and asked if I should be seen. She got right back to me and said yes! So I'm going in tomorrow morning at 9:45. I assume it's a Baker's cyst or something like that, but we'll see. I'm not aware of having injured myself in any way. 

Then on Friday I was changing all the calendars (no one but me ever remembers to do this) and I ripped the hole in Teen B's calendar so it wouldn't hang up properly. So then I went in the desk room to look for those little thingies that you can stick onto a torn hole to fix it. While I was rummaging in a drawer of the secretary desk (which has lots of stuff piled on it), I dislodged a bunch of stuff which then fell hard onto my RIGHT foot. Oh no. I was afraid I'd broken my big toe.

In fact, the toe seems fine, so disaster was averted. But it reminded me that I need to be careful right now -- 'tis the season for accidents. Last year at about this time, Teen A had his smash-up with the car. 

Partly because of my knee and partly because of I don't know what, this wasn't a good week for getting things done. I did a little cleaning, a little writing, no yardwork, and no filing. I don't even care. I can work on my schedule after school gets out. I'll have to revise it again then, because it's hard to do certain things when the kids are home, but that's fine. I don't know how much Teen A will really be around, of course. He might basically move in with his girlfriend and her dad.

We learned something today though -- the girlfriend is going to go to CSU next year, not Metro as we thought. So Teen A will probably be around here more than we expected. I suspect this means the relationship will end, gradually, but we'll see. Maybe Teen A will go up there every weekend at first. 

I know what that's like. When I started college, at UC Davis, my boyfriend was at UC Santa Cruz, and there were several weekends when he made the long drive (about 135 miles, maybe 2.5-3 hours) between campuses in his little red MG (until we eventually broke up, in February). Metro to CSU is actually much less, about 65 miles, maybe a little over an hour, depending on traffic. And Teen A likes to drive. Well, we'll see.

Maybe that's all I have to talk about today. I should go help Teen B with homework. Maybe one more weekend of doing that, and then it will be over. Forever. So weird.