Busy, busy

Well, it was a busy week, as I expected it would be. Our big achievement was Teen B retaking his driving test and PASSING! Oh, thank goodness. The examiners score the tests, and you can't get more than 20 points. On his first test, Teen B got 22 points. This time he got 20 -- but that's still a pass. It's like getting a D in Language Arts, but that was still a pass. Such a relief. 

Unfortunately, because he had to take the test twice, there was some special fee I needed to pay for him to get his license, and I couldn't figure out how to do that online, so we had to make a physical appointment to go in and get the license, and it's not until June 18th. So he can't drive alone until then. 

The day after his test, he got invited to a graduation party, and if he'd had his license, he could have driven himself, but... The party started at 7 pm, and around 8:15 he finally decided to go, so I drove him out there. We got there about 8:45, and sat in the parking lot for a while before he finally texted the girl who had invited him and she came out and got him (the party was held in a locked building, some industrial thing). I went home, and around 11 pm, when I was thinking of going to bed, I texted him and suggested that he might like to get a ride home with someone else... but he texted back and said the party just ended. So I went and got him, getting us both home about 11:45. It was a "game show party," with prizes, and he came home with a stack of stuff, candy and soda and miscellany.

I suggested that the girl who invited him maybe "likes" him. He said no. I suggested that maybe he'll see these people at other parties during the summer. He said no. It's OK. I'm glad he got to go to one party, even if that's the only social life he has all summer.

Teen A's social life has been complicated by his girlfriend's father moving to Berthoud. We're gradually learning more about this -- mostly from her, since Teen A never tells us anything. Apparently her father was only renting the place in Boulder, and the landlord kept raising the rent, thus the move. They are now living with the father's girlfriend, in a smaller house, and the father's girlfriend disapproves of Teen A spending the night. So for now the two teenage sweethearts have no place to be together, except the couch in our living room. I expect we will be waking up to the two of them on the couch a lot this summer. It makes Teen B angry -- he doesn't like having an extra person in the house -- but it doesn't bother me (the girlfriend is quite pleasant). In the fall, of course, Teen B will go off to live in a dorm at CSU, making the twins' bedroom available, but Teen A's girlfriend is also going off to live in a dorm at CSU, so... Life is hard for teenagers in love. I remember it well.

Let's see, what else happened this week? Monday was the Prius V's oil change, which turned out to be more complicated than expected. I followed Teen A out to the repair shop (about 5 miles from here), where he dropped off the car. As we drove away, I asked him if he'd reminded them about the car's other problem, the fact that the driver's side door won't reliably lock. No, he'd forgotten. So we went to Jamba Juice, and from there I called the shop and reminded them. Sure, they'd look at it. We got Jamba Juice and went home, and an hour or so later they texted me that the car was ready. We drove the five miles to pick it up and after paying $119, I asked about the door lock. Oh yeah, I think the mechanic said something about that, do you want me to check? Yes, obviously. She checked and it turned out that the car needed some part I'd never heard of -- an actuator? I said, OK, should we make another appointment to have that replaced? Oh no, she said, we can do it today. (Then why didn't you, I thought but did not say.) It would be about $300. Fine, fine. Teen A and I drove the five miles home again. An hour or so later another text: it's ready. So we drove the five miles back to get the car. This time it really was ready. But there was an issue with paying. The bill was $152. Wow, I said, that's a lot less than you said it would be. Puzzled, the girl looked at the bill. Oh, no, it's actually $452. Wow, I said, that's a lot more than you said it would be. More study of the bill. Oh, actually you already paid $152, so it's only $300. OK, sure, but I didn't already pay $152, I paid $119. Oh. Hmm. Oh, actually the original bill was really $152, so we just charged your credit card the extra $33 after you left. Ohhhkay. "Clear as mud," said the mechanic sitting next to her. Anyway, the Prius V is fixed now and the driver's side door locks and everybody's happy.

My referral to orthopedics went through and they actually called me, I think it was Monday. So I have an appointment to see my new orthopedist on Wednesday, June 17th. I said to my doctor (over email) that I didn't think there was much they could do for an old person who tears her meniscus, but she replied cheerily that there were many options and not to worry. So we shall see. Rocket Boy has been having a lot of trouble with his OTHER shoulder (the supposedly good one) that he fell on in a hotel room on our spring break trip back in March, and his physical therapist encouraged him to have that seen to. So he's seeing HIS orthopedist (different from mine) on Monday. It would be pretty funny if it turned out that shoulder was torn too and he had to have a regular rotator cuff repair of it. Hilarious.

The kids keep asking if we're going on vacation to California in July, and I keep saying, it depends on whether Dad and/or I have to have surgery, and when. Hopefully we'll have some answers quickly.

I had less success getting an appointment for poor Sillers and her peeing problem. At our vet's recommendation I had called the specialist vet for an appointment, but couldn't get through on their busy phone. So I filled out a form online and this week they called me (I think Tuesday?). But it was someone from the cat nephrology department and as I explained, we probably need to see a cat neurologist. She agreed and said she would pass the information on to them. But no one ever called back. So I guess my next step is to fill out another form online, since their phone is too busy. Poor weird Sillers. She doesn't want to go to a specialist vet, or any vet. Meanwhile, Rocket Boy and I sleep with a big towel laid over our fitted sheet (because she sleeps between us) and I keep washing cat blankets.

Teen B and I spent some time working on his college stuff, and I got him to schedule an appointment with a counselor to choose classes for the fall. But before he could have the appointment, he had to do some "assessments," including a long math test that he didn't want to take. I said, "Don't worry about it, if you do badly, they'll just put you in an easier class, and it would be great to have an easy math class your first semester of college," but he ignored me. Finally he took the test. He asked me for help with one of the algebra problems and I was just baffled by it, didn't know where to start. I guess a lot of the test was like that. Anyway, he didn't do very well, so he'll get to take an easy class. Win-win, in my book.

And yesterday I finally got him to write thank-you notes for all the graduation presents he received. At the last minute I remembered that we had actual graduation stationery, so we used that. I addressed the envelopes (six of them! including my sister who told Teen B he didn't have to write her a thank-you note because he'd thanked her in person, because COME ON) because my handwriting is better, but he wrote all the notes himself. Now I just have to get Teen A to do his.  

(Update: Teen A did his! Now I can go mail all 12 of them at the post office!) 

We had an odd thing happen in the garden this week, not sure which day. So last fall I planted six tulip bulbs in a row in our front-yard flower bed, and they came up all in a heap, as though they had somehow gravitated toward each other over the winter. Only one bloomed, but I enjoyed that. I'd been looking at the leaves ever since, wondering if I should cut them back the way I do the iris. Then suddenly this week they were gone, all of them, just gone, no trace of the leaves or anything. We still have no idea what happened. Did a squirrel dig them all up? Would a squirrel do that? I just don't know. Fortunately, today a neighbor dug up some of his own tulips and offered them to anyone who wanted some, so I went by and got about a dozen. I'll save them to plant in the fall (hopefully won't forget about them).

It's been very hot here the last few days, and today is supposed to be another scorcher. But then it is going to cool down a little, with only Tuesday being really bad. A few days ago they were predicting that the whole coming week would be hot, but they keep changing the forecast. Now it looks like a mix of high 80s and low 90s, which is better than all high 90s. Yesterday, because of the heat, I wore my new sundress that I paid a lot of money for at April Cornell. I like it a lot, but NO ONE said anything about it. No one said, "What are you wearing?" or "Pretty dress," or anything, positive or negative. I decided not to ask for comments, in case it looked terrible and my family was being polite (but they're never polite -- probably just didn't notice). I was very comfortable in the dress and am thinking about ordering another. Why not -- we have the money...

My computer doesn't like the heat and keeps overheating and grinding to a halt. Yesterday I worked on genealogy in the morning, overheated the computer, and turned it off for a few hours. But when I turned it back on, it was still sluggish. So I set up our big box fan to blow right onto the back of the computer and wow, what a difference. Suddenly it was fast again. So today Rocket Boy dug out a little fan from a drawer and set it up so it's aimed right at my computer. So far so good. I really need a new computer, but that's such a hassle. 

I haven't been writing recently, because it's hard to concentrate when there are so many people in the house. Instead, I've been obsessed with genealogy, using Ancestry.com to explore. I have over 1700 people in my tree now. I've always known a lot about my family history, but it turns out there are so many more avenues to explore. For example, a distant relative did a lot of work on my mother's father's line, the Morrisons. But here's the wife of my mother's father's father's father: Malina Miller, who was born in Illinois in 1826. The genealogy simply says, "Parents unknown at this writing." Well, obviously that needed work. I had already found out more about her parents and grandparents, but this week, I've been looking at her many siblings and tracing their descendants. I get a kick out of following lines forward instead of back, looking for third, fourth, and fifth cousins. I haven't found a sixth cousin yet, but I know I will. Sometimes Ancestry pops up with a note: "Would you like to contact XXX Cousin?" meaning that the fourth cousin I've just found is also on Ancestry. I always say no. Maybe at some point I'll say yes. Maybe someday I'll do the genetic testing. But for now, I'm just having fun.

Most of these distant cousins live in the midwest: Minnesota, Illinois, Iowa, Missouri, places like that. I found a really nice-sounding fourth cousin who'd retired from the photo department at Walgreen's (in northern Minnesota). You just wonder if she'd been living somewhere else, would she have had a better job. Occasionally a branch of the family will make the move to California or Washington, and then suddenly the distant cousins have better jobs. I found a fourth cousin this week who was a teacher in California before she died rather young of Alzheimer's and another last night who's a professor (also in California). 

And then there are the tragedies, the sad family stories. One distant cousin was out hunting pheasants with a friend in the late 1800s and the friend accidentally shot the top of the cousin's head off (the boys were about 16). Yesterday I found another distant cousin who accidentally shot himself while hunting rabbits in Missouri and "died within the hour." He was 23. Sometimes a whole family dies within a few years: baby, mom, toddler, dad. Yesterday I found a family that had two daughters born in 1900 and 1901. Mom died in 1908, dad died in 1913. Just like that, two young girls left alone. They both grew up and got married, so someone must have taken care of them.

I've always been a snoop, fascinated by other people's stories. Doing genealogy is the ultimate pleasure for a snoop.

So anyway, not writing right now, though I plan to return to my mystery children's book series in the fall. Not that the world cares. In the May 25th issue of the New Yorker there is a comic piece titled "Realistic High-School-Yearbook Inscriptions" by Jason Roeder and Mike Sacks, and one "inscription" reads 

You're such an AMAZING WRITER! I'M SO JEALOUS! I can't wait to read that one book you'll self-publish years from now, a children's book about a talking stapler with a huge heart. -- Mary P. 

That could easily have been written in one of my high school yearbooks, with the part about the talking stapler implied. In fact I think it was. Hmm, I'll check. Not in my senior yearbook, where mostly people praised my manual dexterity (because I didn't break anything in AP Chemistry). In my sophomore yearbook I found one comment like that, but it actually said,

Keep on writing those stories? and maybe you'll become a professional scuba diver or something.

which actually is pretty insightful, I think. Anyway, if someone -- even someone who was predicted to do great things -- is enjoying writing about a talking stapler, maybe that's OK too.

The week ahead looks very busy.

• Monday, Rocket Boy sees his orthopedist, so we'll hear what he has to say. I expect there will be another MRI scheduled too. 
• Tuesday, Teen A supposedly has some kind of orientation thing at Metro from 12 to 5. I tried to get him to prepare for it, figure out what he has to do, but there's some app that he has to use that won't work for him. He tried to use it on his computer and his computer blew up. So we ordered a part for the computer, but meanwhile I don't know what he has to do for Tuesday, and the app won't work on his phone either. Fortunately, Metro is a forgiving school. I think this will all work out. Stay tuned.
• Wednesday, Teen B has his advising appointment (over Zoom). Parents are NOT allowed to attend (this is CSU's attempt to deal with helicopter parents, obviously). But of course, Teen B is nervous about his appointment and WANTS me to attend. I suggested that I could stay out of range of the camera and signal to him when he has questions. We'll see.
• Thursday, both Teen B and I have eye appointments. He wants to get new glasses whether or not his vision has changed, so we'll work on that too.

And somewhere in there I'll hopefully make contact with the specialist vet about Sillers, and maybe my dentist will call to make the appointment to get my fake tooth put in. Another busy week, and the week after that looks even worse. Worse, no, none of this is bad. I just keep thinking about how quiet things are going to seem in the fall, when the kids are at college. Maybe. We shall see.

OK, summer

Last night I dreamed that I was about to fail AP US history (which I passed in 1977) and thus would not graduate from high school (which I did in 1978). I had a term paper due the next day which I had not really started, although I had a topic. The topic was something about how English speakers and French speakers interacted back in the 1700s, and I just wasn't having any luck with it. I explained this to Mr. Bunton (my AP chemistry teacher back in 1977-78) and he looked very disappointed with me. I realized that I was going to have to repeat the class over the summer, otherwise I wouldn't be able to go to college in the fall. 

Fortunately, none of us in this household have to worry about any of this anymore. We are all high school graduates! (And some of us have PhDs, but we won't dwell on that.)

So, here comes summer. With no classes to make up, thank you, thank you. It was a close thing with Teen B and Language Arts, but he managed to pass. Somehow. I think it was just his nice teacher being nice. She's off to Japan to teach next year, so Boulder high school students won't be her problem anymore.

This was a very busy week, especially considering that it was a short week, with Memorial Day and all that. On Tuesday, Teen B and I both had dentist appointments and neither of us had any cavities, which is nice. They're going to call me this week to set up an appointment for me to finally get a fake tooth attached to the implant. I've had a hole in my mouth for almost 11 months, so it will be interesting to be able to chew on that side again.

Wednesday was my MRI at Boulder MRI, out in Lafayette. To get there I just drove straight down South Boulder Road for miles and miles, and it occurred to me that it would be easy to get MRIs there on a regular basis, if anyone in their right mind ever wanted to do such a thing, lol. I really hate MRIs. But so does everyone, right?

Almost everyone waiting for an MRI was old. I thought, what is the point of subjecting all of us old people to horrible MRIs and other tests? We're all going to die soon, anyway. Sitting next to me was an old couple. The old woman was heavy, and had an oxygen tank. The old man urged her to sit down, take a load off. Then she was called in to the MRI room, and another woman came by with a pug, which she said was a therapy dog. We all petted the pug. The old man told the woman that he and his wife were thinking about getting another dog. She encouraged him to do so. I thought, why don't we all just get dogs, why are we bothering with all these MRIs? But of course, if I got a dog, I wouldn't be able to walk it, due to my knee.

Then it was my turn. I didn't have to take off any of my non-metallic clothes, just my sandals (which the technician told me were cute). They tried to give me music to listen to, but one time when I had an MRI I listened to early Beatles, and now whenever I hear "I Want To Hold Your Hand" or any of those songs, I think of the noises the MRI makes. So, no music. I silently recited the times tables up to 10 x 15, plus several nursery rhymes, a poem by Philip Larkin called "Wedding Wind" that I memorized when I was in college, and finally some of my mother's old songs. And then it was over. They gave me a CD of my results which the technician said I should give to my doctor "or any other doctor they refer you to," which suggested to me that she had noticed the problem already.

Anyway, I have an "almost complete tear" of my meniscus, which is not a surprise. Today my doctor messaged me and gave me some options of who to be referred to. I chose the guy at Boulder Medical Center. Might as well stay close to home. So I guess I'll be calling for an appointment this coming week. 

Thursday was Teen B's driving test. He was very anxious about it, kept delaying putting on his shoes. I finally went out to the car to wait for him. He PHONED me from the house to ask where the shoehorn was. I said, "I don't know where the shoehorn is, I never use it!" and hung up on him. A minute later, he came out to the car with his shoes on.

I had only gotten him to practice for the test once, but he still did pretty well, although he failed. His main sin was not coming to a complete stop at stop signs, which seems like SUCH an obvious thing to do right, but he didn't do it. 

Since then, I've been observing my own driving in regards to stop signs, and I see that *I* do this (fail to come to a complete stop) much of the time. I get to the stop sign and then I glide slowly forward, looking, looking. But I don't make that complete stop first. So I'm working on my own driving now! 

Teen B is going to retake the test this coming Tuesday, but so far I haven't been able to get him to practice. If he fails a second time, I'm going to make him take more driving lessons. Or give up and just get an ID.

Thursday afternoon, after the driving test, Teen A and I took the Prius V to get a smog check. And on Monday we'll take it for an oil change. 

On Friday, Teen B suggested we go to a movie. I really wanted to see the sheep detectives movie, but he thought that sounded dumb. He proposed "The Backrooms," which seemed to be a horror movie. I don't love horror movies, but I like spooky movies, and this sounded spooky, so I agreed. We went to the 1:30 pm showing at the Boulder Cinemark theater. Just before we left, Teen A came home and we invited him to come too, but he said he and his girlfriend already had tickets for a 10:30 pm showing of the same movie at Flatiron Crossing AMC theater (because the seats are more comfortable there).

The movie was fun. I didn't realize it's also a science fiction movie -- sort of a combination of horror, scifi, and psychological thriller? It was very creepy and quite scary, and I have no idea what any of it was supposed to mean. A good summer teen flick. 

I still want to see the sheep detectives movie, though. We'll probably end up getting it from the library in a year or two.

Teen A got home very late from his movie, and in the morning I was surprised to find not one but two teenagers snuggled up together under a blanket on our living room couch. Teen A's girlfriend's father is in the process of moving to Berthoud (not Fort Collins as we had been told -- Berthoud is about halfway between Boulder and Fort Collins) and she didn't want to drive all the way home so late at night. I whispered to Teen A, "A little crowded," but he replied, "We made it work." I was glad that they felt comfortable enough to sleep at our house, but I wished the bathroom were cleaner. I'm having trouble with housework, due to my knee.

Half an hour or so later, Rocket Boy got up and I ran into him in the hallway. He was in his underwear, as usual. He whispered, "We have a visitor," and I whispered back, "You should put on your pants." It turned out that by a "visitor," he meant Teen A, who often doesn't sleep at home, so he didn't see any urgency about the pants. Eventually he figured it out.

The girlfriend came into my room before she left, to say hi and bye to the kitties (and me). She was wearing a tiny black camisole top and tiny black shorts, which looked more like pajamas than clothes, but apparently they work for either. Today in Starbucks I saw a girl wearing what appeared to be blue striped baby doll pajamas, not even covering her butt, so I guess Teen A's girlfriend was actually quite formally dressed. 

Saturday's main excitement was helping Rocket Boy find the ingredients for his icebox cake, which he is planning to take to work on Monday. Nabisco stopped making their Famous Chocolate Wafers back in 2023, but we didn't know that, so I spent half an hour walking around King Soopers looking for them. I was also there to pick up some prescriptions, and because I got in a traffic mess coming from the main library and had to detour to Chautauqua, I arrived at exactly 1 pm, which is when the pharmacy closes for lunch, sigh, so since I had half an hour to kill, I spent it pushing a little cart around and around the store, looking for the cookies. This was not great for my knee, of course, and I felt that people were looking at me, this aging woman dragging her left leg as she trudged through the aisles. Finally, at 1:30, I pulled out my phone and learned that the cookies were no longer made. I picked up my prescriptions and went home to tell Rocket Boy the bad news.

According to the internet, a good substitute is Oreo Thins, which you can split apart and scrape the filling out of, or just leave as is. So after we all went out to dinner at the Nepalese place, we had Teen A drive us back to King Soopers, where we bought Oreo Thins. Then, back at home, I read about some other possible replacement cookies, which might or might not be available at Safeway, so around 9 pm I drove to Safeway and bought Tate's Bake Shop Double Chocolate Chip cookies and Simple Mills Chocolate Brownie Seed & Nut Flour Sweet Thins. Rocket Boy decided the Sweet Thins wouldn't work (though they're rather tasty for snacking), but he made two test cakes using the Oreo Thins (half split apart and half whole) and the Tate's Bake Shop cookies, and this morning we all tested them out. Verdict: In my opinion, the split apart Oreo Thins are the closest to the original, but in Teen A's opinion, the Tate's cookies make the best cake. Teen B didn't have an opinion: "I didn't even want any cake, why are you asking me?!" 

Another possibility is Dewey's Bakery Brownie Crisps, but although Rocket Boy called around, we couldn't find any in our area. I might order them online and he can try them later. But for tomorrow, he's going to use the Oreo Thins. Maybe. I strongly suspect that at this moment he is out driving around to different stores (Whole Foods, Trader Joe's, Sprouts, World Market) looking for alternatives. 

So anyway, a very busy, complicated week. The week ahead is looking potentially busy too, with

• The Prius oil change on Monday
• Teen B's driving re-test on Tuesday
• Possibly my new fake tooth getting put in, depending on when the dentist calls me 
• My doctor is giving me a referral to an orthopedist, so I have to call them this week, although who knows when the appointment will be
• Sillers has a referral to a cat neurologist (a veterinarian specializing in feline neurology, not a cat that is a neurologist) for her peeing problem, so I should hear from them this week and maybe have an appointment
• Whatever else comes up. What we SHOULD do is write thank-you letters. We'll see.

This week we had a financial scare -- the state of Colorado wrote us a letter demanding that we repay the $16,000 Rocket Boy received last year in unemployment compensation. I always felt he shouldn't have been awarded that, so I was all ready to pay it back. And for once in our lives -- well, except for when I inherited all that money from my mother, before we spent it all on childcare -- we actually have $16,000 available. Alternatively, I told RB, "Let's just set up a payment plan, pay $2,000 a month, we'll be done in 8 months. You're making so much money now, we won't notice it." But RB ignored me, called the unemployment office and got it all straightened out, and now we don't owe $16,000 anymore. 

So it goes. 

Reading post: May

It's almost the end of May and I know I won't finish another book before tomorrow night, so... In May my plan was to read Asian and Asian-American related books, since May is Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month. I had a long list of authors and books from 2022 when I read Japanese and Japanese-American classics, but the problem was that the Boulder Public Library had almost none of the books on the list. So I ordered things from Prospector and otherwise made do. 

The names of some of the authors I was looking for came from a collection of poetry that I read in 2022 called The Narrow Road to the Interior by Kimiko Hahn, which I got from the library accidentally. I had ordered The Narrow Road to the Interior by Basho, but they sent me this modern collection instead, so I went ahead and read it while waiting for Basho. In one poem called "Asian American Lit. Final," Hahn mentions numerous Asian and Asian-American writers, and that's where I got the names of many of the authors I tried to read this month (Yamada, Yamanaka, Cha, etc.). 

One other book that I wanted to read was something published just this year: Questions 27 & 28 by Karen Tei Yamashita, about the camps again. I'm on hold for it, #4 of 9 as of today.

Books I said I'd like to read

Camp Notes and Other Poems by Mitsuye Yamada (originally published 1976/this edition 1992). Yamada (who was on that list in Hahn's book, see above) grew up in Seattle and was in the Minidoka internment camp in Idaho during WWII (along with John Okada, author of No-No Boy, and Monica Sone, author of Nisei Daughter). This poetry collection (which I found at the Bookworm, much to my surprise, almost as though it were waiting for me) includes 20 poems about the camp, seven poems about her issei parents, and 16 "other" poems. I really liked it. The poems are short and simple, but some of them pack a punch. I looked Yamada up and she is still alive at 102!

Snow Angel, Sand Angel by Lois-Ann Yamanaka, illustrated by Ashley Lukashevsky (2021). I read this picture book because our library had almost nothing by any of the authors I was interested in, including most of Yamanaka's books, but it did have this! It's a lovely book about a little girl in Hawaii who has never seen snow. Her parents take her to the top of Mauna Kea, but the snow there is old and icy. She thinks it would be so wonderful to see real snow falling, make a snowman and a snow angel. Then, on New Year's Eve, they go to the beach and make a sandman and sand angels. And she realizes that she loves her homeland the best. A lovely sweet story and one that I can relate to, having grown up in California.

The Village of Eight Graves by Seishi Yokomizo, translated from the Japanese by Bryan Karetnyk (1950/2021). In 2022 I read my first murder mystery by Yokomizo, The Honjin Murders, didn't love it, but later read his The Inugami Curse, which was better. And I noted that I wouldn't mind reading more by him. Ergo, this book. It was better than The Honjin Murders, but it wasn't very good. I guessed the murderer early on, but I still had to sit through the rest of the 349 pages of red herrings. Much of the book takes place in a cave, which was kind of interesting, but I thought rather unrealistic. Anyway, I might read more of Yokomizo, I might not. Someone on Reddit said several of his novels (mystery and other) have been made into Japanese movies and those are good, but so far I haven't found any mystery ones with English subtitles.

Blu's Hanging by Lois-Ann Yamanaka (1997). It occurred to me that most Y-names are Asian (except Young), so at the main library I started looking at the "Y" shelf in the fiction section. And I found this. That's odd, I thought, I didn't remember that the library had anything by Yamanaka except the picture book (see above) and a couple of e-books (which I dislike and avoid). I tried to check this out, but the machine wouldn't accept it. So I went to the desk, where I learned that the book was actually LOST. "Thank you for finding it," said the librarian. "It was just sitting there on the shelf," I murmured. Maybe the book decided to reappear just for me...

Anyway. This well-written but incredibly depressing novel is about three working-class Japanese-Hawaiian kids whose mother has recently died and whose father is struggling to cope. They live on mayonnaise sandwiches, rice mixed with canned mushroom soup, and chocolate. The boy, Blu, is very fat and has no friends. Their horrible next-door neighbors kill their cat's kittens. An old man living nearby exposes himself to Blu in exchange for candy. The cat-killing neighbors' uncle molests everybody. And so on. It has kind of a happy ending, sort of, but I never did understand the title.

Dictee by Theresa Hak Kyung Cha (1982). The Korean-American author of this book was raped and murdered by a stranger a week after her book was published. That nightmare overshadows the work and makes it hard to assess, although I guess it's also a commentary on the dangerous lives of Asian women. The work itself, hmm. I understood so little of it. It's divided into 9 sections, each corresponding to one of the Greek muses (Calliope, Clio, Urania, etc.). One section has to do with the author's mother, who was Korean but grew up in China. But most of the sections I did not understand at all. If Cha hadn't been murdered, would we still be reading this? Would she have written more understandable stuff later? Impossible to know. I don't know what else to say.

Seventeen Syllables and Other Stories by Hisaye Yamamoto (1988). Another book by a woman who lived through the Japanese internment camps. Yamamoto was born in 1921, so about the same age as Mitsuye Yamada and Monica Sone and other writers I've read. Yamamoto was in Poston, though, in Arizona, which is supposed to have been a particularly bad camp. Only one of these stories is set in a camp, though. Mostly they're about growing up Japanese-American in California. In the introduction she is compared to Toshio Mori, whose short stories I read in 2022. Yamamoto's English is much better, though. Some of these stories are really quite accomplished. I think she should be better known than Mori, instead of not known at all. 

Kokoro by Natsume Soseki, translated from the Japanese by Meredith McKinney (1914). In 2022 I read I Am a Cat by Soseki and didn't love it, despite its delightful premise. As I noted then, 

Supposedly some of Soseki's other works are better, but they don't get read as much because they aren't titled I Am a Cat, which I still think makes the book very hard to resist. Even knowing what I know now. 

Kokoro is supposed to be Soseki's best book (it was also the last one he completed), so I decided to read that. And it was really good, so much better than I Am a Cat. It's the story of a young man who befriends an older man, who he calls Sensei (teacher, more or less). Sensei harbors a deep dark secret, which he reveals to the young man in a long letter that ends the book. I mean, it's a Japanese novel from 1914, so anyone who considers reading it should understand that it's not good in the sense of a modern American novel. But it is really good. I gobbled it up in a couple of days. I may read more Soseki as time goes on.

Books from the New Yorker's "Briefly Noted" reviews

Properties of Thirst by Marianne Wiggins (2022). I chose this novel because, although it's not by an Asian-American author, it's set in the Owens Valley (not far from Ridgecrest) and is, in part, about the Manzanar internment camp, which we visited when we lived there. It's an odd book, though. The author apparently had a massive stroke when she was partway through the book, and over the next few years her daughter helped her finish it. So there are long stretches that are beautifully written and then there are shorter sections that seem very choppy and confused. And the long stretches should have been cut down and probably would have been, if the author had been fully functional. I should read something else by her someday, just to see what she was like as a writer in her prime. Anyway, it was interesting, but ultimately disappointing. Not enough about the internees, too much fairytale happy ending stuff.

Cinema Love by Jiaming Tang (2024). Hmm, I don't know. The subject matter of this first novel was interesting -- a movie theater in China in the 1980s where gay men (most of whom are married to women) congregate, and what happens to them and their wives after they emigrate to America. But it was so first-novelish. The New Yorker called it "moving if uneven," but I would have just said bad. Way too much telling, not enough showing. So much politics, not much art. I would have given up on it after a few chapters, except that I was waiting for two books to come in from Prospector, so I kept saying, oh, I'll read a little more... Maybe his next book will be better.

Other reading

The Creative Act: A Way of Being by Rick Rubin with Neil Strauss (2023). I read about this in the New Yorker, but in the "Book Currents" section, not Briefly Noted, so I'm putting it under "Other reading" instead. The mystery writer Patricia Cornwall recommended it.

Sometimes when you're doing something creative... it feels like you're conducting electricity... One of the reasons I like The Creative Act so much is because it talks about that process, and about how you've got to keep your current unfettered by all the distractions in life.

That sounded good, and actually that part of the book was good, but a lot of it was kind of meh. Meh, and then occasionally brilliant, but not brilliant often enough. I kept reading because the book helped put me to sleep at night.

Snow Hunters by Paul Yoon (2013). This is another book I found by browsing in the "Y" section at the main library. Yoon is Korean-American, and his grandfather was a POW from North Korea. This novel is about a North Korean POW who relocates to a small town in Brazil in the 1950s, works for a Japanese tailor there, takes over the shop, and gradually assimilates. I don't know, it was OK. Very lovely writing, but I had some trouble identifying with the main character, especially after he came to Brazil. The flashbacks of his time as a soldier in North Korea were more moving. Anyway, it was OK, something a little different.

Trip by Amie Barrodale (2025). I have been interested in Amie Barrodale ever since I read a ghost story by her (https://www.theparisreview.org/blog/2012/10/03/letter-from-a-haunted-house-part-one/) and I knew she'd published a novel, so when I spotted it on the shelf at the George Reynolds library, I grabbed it. So... the plot: A divorced mom of a teenage autistic son goes to an academic conference in Nepal where she dies accidentally. The rest of the book is her getting used to being dead (experiencing the bardo), and then attempting to rescue her son from danger. Such a cool book AND it's an autism book. That was a surprise, but yeah, it's a book about what it's like to be the parent of an autistic kid. I loved this passage, in the last chapter:

I thought for the last time about how I had not diagnosed Trip early enough. How I had been impatient with him.... I had let him look at screens. I had let him eat dyes. It was my fault for living in a house with lead paint on the porch. For feeding him meat. For not drawing him out sooner, over and over again, the very first time I wondered about him playing alone with his cars. 

I let go of how, like one of his teachers, I had tried to argue my way out of it at first....

....How rigid, how conventional, how prescribed my expectations were. Because I had been a strange person, I hadn't noticed for a long time how much I looked at those around me and followed, and how much they did the same, how little flexibility we had, how someone who actually was a little different made us lose our minds.... 

Obviously, one should "let go" of these things before one actually dies, but it's hard. Barrodale apparently has an autistic child, so this was very authentic. And moving. I might even buy myself a copy when it comes out in paperback. I'm counting it as my seventh book about autism, and I loved it.

Onward into our new life

That's a very dramatic post title, much more dramatic than life seems these days. And yet it's absolutely true. High school is over, K-12 education is over, and our new life has begun. So far, I am not loving it. But we shall see.

The New Vista high school graduation was yesterday and we watched it online to see the last of the twins' kindergarten classmates walk across the stage in caps and gowns. I think there were 5 former classmates that we saw. I'm still puzzled about what happened to some of the others, though. Not counting the twins, there were 5 former elementary school classmates who graduated from Boulder High, and 16 from Fairview. So, including the twins that's (2 + 5 + 5 + 16) 28 kids total, out of 42 or so. As for the other 14, we know where some of them went, moved to Aurora or Arvada or Englewood or Crested Butte. Some of them we didn't really know, and so they've completely disappeared for us. But a few, I'd say three or so, we were expecting to see at one of these graduations and they weren't there, weren't listed in any program. We know all three of them started high school in Boulder, but they didn't seem to finish. I actually watched the graduations for Arapahoe Ridge high school (for nontraditional students) and Boulder Universal (the online school for kids who can't hack in-person school), but none of these three showed up there. So maybe they moved, maybe they didn't graduate, who knows?

Two of them were boys who got in trouble all the time (the third was a girl with a flaky home life). One of the boys was Teen A's best friend in kindergarten, and he and Teen A (Kid A at the time, of course) got sent to the principal's office more than once that year, worrying me terribly. He showed up at Boulder High a couple of years ago, in one of Teen B's classes, missed a lot of class, and then seemed to vanish. The other boy, we thought had gone to New Vista, but he wasn't at the graduation. We think his parents may have gotten divorced. Not sure. And the girl -- she was smart and talented, but her home life, hmm. Anything could have happened.

I know we are very lucky that Teen A and Teen B graduated, that they didn't get in more trouble than they did. I worked hard to make that happen, but I know some of the other parents did too. Some of it really was luck.

Two years ago, Teen B was invited to a graduation party. A Hispanic girl that he knew from his math class was graduating and she invited him. He sent me some pictures of it: enormous purple and gold balloons that said 2024, a big cake, tons of other food. The family lived in a mobile home park, and I think the party may have been in a tent outside their mobile home. Nothing fancy, in other words. But the party was fancy! Oh my goodness. At the time I remember thinking, oh no, I'm going to have to put on something like that too. And of course I didn't. 

But other people filled in for me! The twins received so many cards and so much cash! I almost couldn't believe it. I felt sort of bad about sending out announcements. I definitely did not want that to be a cash grab for the twins. They have money from social security. But they were delighted by the presents, so I guess I just need to step back and say thank you. Actually, I need to encourage the twins to write thank you notes to all these nice people. And then I can step back. 

Stepping back is going to have to be kind of metaphorical for a while, though, since my left knee is giving me even more trouble than before. We had some great rainstorms on Monday and Tuesday of last week (snowstorms on I-80 and I-70, interfering with my sister's drive home!), but on Wednesday after dinner I decided I could go for a short walk. I got maybe five houses down the street when my knee started hurting terribly. I tried to go farther... no, big mistake. A woman had just gotten into her car a few houses ahead of me, and I felt as though I shouldn't cross the street and head home until she took off. I looked behind me, and there was a woman a few houses back with a dog, so I felt as though I shouldn't just turn around and retrace my steps because I'd run into her. All of this was nonsense -- I could certainly have done either thing. Finally I crossed the street and walked back toward home, but the pain got worse and worse. I stopped every few feet to rest. While walking, I waved my arms, which seemed to help a little but probably made me look like a crazy person. I thought, should I call Rocket Boy? But how ridiculous, to ask for a ride when I'm four houses from home. 

Anyway, I made it home, took a lot of pain pills, and Thursday morning I emailed my doctor. The triage nurse called me and said my doctor was out that day, but she would talk to her on Friday. Friday morning I got a call from Boulder MRI! So I'm going to have an MRI of my knee this coming Wednesday. Meanwhile I'm hopping around, sometimes on the crutches Rocket Boy got me at a thrift store on Thursday. I've discovered that I can walk (with or without crutches) as long as the left leg is completely straight. If I bend it a little, the pain is excruciating when I put weight on it. But I can bend my knee just fine if I'm sitting down, i.e., not putting weight on it. I don't know what this means. Is this just more problems with my supposed Baker's cyst? Or is something more serious wrong, for instance with the meniscus? Will I have to have surgery? Would physical therapy help? I just have to wait and see.

Meanwhile, the weather has been so lovely, alternating rain and sunshine. Everything is greening up like crazy. I want to go for walks! But all I can do is hobble. 

Despite the knee problem, I made a list of summer goals/plans.

1. Help Teen B prepare for his driving test. If he fails, either sign him up for more lessons, or just get him an ID and forget about the license for now.
2. Apply for passports for Teen B and me (Teen A and Rocket Boy got theirs last year).
3. Plan our trip to California, around July 20th. This is very unclear right now, due to my knee, but we need to keep thinking about it.
4. Prepare the kids for college: attend orientations as needed, encourage them to register for classes, buy supplies for Teen B's dorm room, encourage Teen B to buy himself a new laptop, etc. 
5. Teach them independence: laundry, banking, etc.
6. Clean and reorganize the kids' mess of a room
7. Work on the files and piles in the desk room
8. Sign Teen A up for flying lessons if he still wants them (I think he does)
9. Convert my blogs to books before Google accidentally deletes them.
10. Take Teen B's clarinet to the music store to be refurbished, in case he wants to play it next year
11. Continue working on the yard 
12. Write thank you notes! 

I know there will be more things to add to the list, but these twelve things are what I thought of off the top of my head. 

We've already started working on the list. Yesterday, Teen B and I practiced driving, his first practice in over a year. He drove us to the Starbucks near Walmart, and back again. He actually did really well, after a bad start which involved thinking he'd turned the engine on when he hadn't, and backing down the driveway trying to put the brakes on which weren't responding because the engine wasn't on. Fortunately no one was walking by right then, otherwise we would have killed them.

I think he still needs to practice parking, so we might work on that tomorrow or Tuesday. His driving test is Thursday.

So, yeah, that's kind of where things stand. Wait to see if I'm going to need surgery -- if not, we could think about scheduling Rocket Boy's shoulder surgery. Arrrggghhhh! We are falling apart! Getting older is such a pain. But we keep going. 

Last night, as we were driving home from having dinner in Longmont, we were talking about an old friend of Rocket Boy's, Ray Harding, who we hadn't heard from in many years. I said, as I always do, "I think he's dead." And then it occurred to me that I could look him up on findagrave. Long story short, I found him. He died in 2012, in a little nothing town in Iowa where he had an old house. He was only 66, but the last time we saw him (which we think might have been in 2006, when he was 60), he was in pretty bad shape. Just no money, no one to look after him. 

We have some money, we have health insurance, we look after each other. Every day that we get to wake up is a good day, yes?  

So, the week ahead. Monday is Memorial Day, so Rocket Boy has it off, thank goodness. He needs another day to sleep late. Tuesday, Teen B and I both have dentist appointments. Wednesday is my MRI. Thursday is Teen B's driving test. I don't know how all these things got scheduled during the same week. The week after that is completely blank. But I suppose it will fill up. 

My niece said recently, in an email, "What a transition it will be to reclaim more of your emotional/mental energy for yourself."

Well, yeah. Someday. Not quite yet! But maybe gradually it will start to happen. In the fall? 

It is really and truly over

It really is! My little men, born at 39 weeks and 5 lbs 12.9 oz/19.5 inches and 5 lbs 10.3 oz/18.25 inches respectively, are not only adults, they are high school graduates. We have done it. It is over.

I never thought it would be this hard. It was so incredibly hard, I can hardly believe we did it. And I understand why so many people don't want to have kids these days (for many reasons, but one reason is that it's so hard). I think it must be more obvious how hard it is, with social media, etc. But both Rocket Boy and I wanted kids so much, I don't think it would have stopped us, even if we had known how hard it would be. 

And anyway, you never know, you never have any idea until you do it.

But we did it.

I know, it's not over. We'll be their parents as long as we live, and it'll be a long time until they're fully independent. That's OK. It'll be a long time until I'm ready to stop being so parental. I'm going to work on it this summer and of course all next year. I'm going to try to teach them things that I've neglected to teach them so far, like how to do the laundry. I'm going to try to transfer responsibilities to them (like doing their own laundry). I expect that it will be a long process. That's fine.

But this stage, this long stage of public school, is now over. No classes need to be made up. I printed out the detailed version of their "Academic Plan Progress Reports" which show exactly how they met all the complicated requirements for graduation, what grade they got each semester of each class, etc. Everything says "Complete." They had to earn 220 credits to graduate. Teen A earned 250 credits and Teen B earned 285. Their grades weren't the best, but nobody got a single F. They passed everything. We are done.

It's been a crazy week. They had one last day of classes, that was Monday, and then Tuesday and Wednesday they had final exams. I had to do a lot of driving back and forth, picking things up. On Wednesday, I had to drive Teen B to school with a MASSIVE amount of paper that he'd been saving for four years, all his old assignments, for the "Paper Drop. This is when the seniors go up to the third floor balcony and drop their papers into the courtyard below (and then the janitors sweep it all up and recycle it). 

Then I had to take our cat Sillers to the vet, because she's been peeing on our bed. While she was there, she had some sort of "episode," a seizure or a heart attack or something, and had to be put on oxygen and kept under observation for a few hours. While that was going on, I had to go back to the school and pick up Teen B's clarinet, because he had to take it home and didn't want to carry it around the rest of the day (normally I would have said no, but I was feeling generous, it being the last day of school, plus he'd already had to give up his locker). Then I had to go back and pick up the cat from the vet. 

Then I had to work on getting ready for the book group who were coming that night. Around 4pm I had to go pick up Teen B, who had stayed to watch Teen A perform in the LOYO (Living on your own) dance contest. He obligingly texted me a video of it, which I've watched dozens of times. Then there was Spring Fling, but he decided it wasn't much fun, so I picked him up. Rocket Boy came home early and did some more vacuuming. Then he decided to mop the kitchen floor, 20 minutes before the book group was going to arrive and I hadn't finished fixing the food. The book group arrived and we had a nice meeting, while Rocket Boy took Teen B to Senior Sunset (which I guess wasn't that great because it was cloudy). Life went on.

Thursday, the kids had no school, but Rocket Boy had to work, so I got up early with him. I'll probably continue to do that all summer -- it's just easier that way. And that afternoon, my little sister and her husband and bulldog arrived from California. Teen B and I went over to their hotel to greet them. Then we went home and I made dinner for us. 

Friday and Saturday they hung out here a lot. We mostly stayed outside (the weather was beautiful), because if we were inside we had to lock the cats in a bedroom, plus the bulldog would eat people's shoes. My sister had brought gift bags for both boys with cards & checks from her and our other sister, and these wonderful graduation leis that her coworker had made for the boys.

We ate out at the Hungry Toad on Friday (plus Sweet Cow for ice cream) and Chautauqua on Saturday (that dinner included Teen A's girlfriend, which was fun). 

Friday the kids did have to go to school, for graduation rehearsal, something called the Senior Gauntlet (where they run around the outside of the school and the younger students and the teachers are all lined up, cheering them on), and cap & gown distribution. We also picked up their yard signs! I have been looking forward to getting those yard signs since I first noticed them in people's yards in 2014! So exciting to be able to put them up in our yard. I've been going around the neighborhood looking for other people's yard signs. It's so fun.

But a terrible thing happened on Friday too. Earlier in the week, our finches' eggs hatched, and we had been watching them feed three or four babies. So adorable! But on Friday a blue jay (perhaps with babies of its own to feed) attacked the nest and ate all the babies. I only saw it get the last one. I screamed and ran outside and clapped my hands, but I was too late. The nest was empty.

This was heartbreaking, even though I've been criticizing the finches ever since they built this terrible nest. At the same time, I've been kind of identifying with them. They were trying to raise their babies, just as Rocket Boy and I have been. Now ours have graduated -- and theirs were eaten by a blue jay!

We wonder if they'll try again with that nest. I hope not. I want to tear it down, but I guess we have to wait and see what happens.

On Saturday, after another visit from Nancy and Rick and the bulldog, Teen B and I went to Target so I could buy a "clear bag" because the CU events center only allows clear bags. I got a nice little purse which I can use for other events like this, only $15. 

Today, finally, was the graduation. Rocket Boy and I got up at 6:30 and I got the twins up at 7 am. I ate a yogurt and took a pain pill. I should probably mention that my knee has been hurting more and more and more. Walking hurts. Sitting down hurts. Moving between a sitting and a standing position hurts. Everything hurts. I'm getting used to having pain all the time, I guess, but I'm also horrified by it. How long will this last? Is this my new normal? Anyway.

Teen A's girlfriend arrived at about 7:30 and he drove her in his car to CU. Teen B and Rocket Boy and I left in our car at 7:40. We got to the events center at about 7:45 (it is really close and there was no traffic), dropped off Teen B with his clarinet, and drove on to my sister's hotel. I had told her we would be there a little after 8, but we got there by about 7:47 or something ridiculous like that. I texted her and she came right down. We were back at CU and parked before 8 am. Then we had to climb up a million steps to get into the events center, and, once we'd gone through screening, had to climb down a million more steps to get to where we decided to sit. It was chilly outside and terribly hot inside (no air conditioning). Then we sat and waited for an hour. Fortunately, the combined band & orchestra played for us from about 8:30 on. They played "Phantom of the Opera" multiple times, and some other things. I explained to Rocket Boy and Nancy and Miss Trish (Teen B's old Kids Hope partner) that they only knew a few things together -- most of the time the band and orchestra play different pieces, they don't usually play together.

Promptly at 9 (I think) the graduation started. First everybody marched in, then they played the "Star Spangled Banner," then the choir sang, then there were the interminable speeches, and then the 503 members of the class of 2026 went up to get their diplomas. It took absolutely forever. At first I clapped for each student, but as it went on and on, and we were only in the B's, I thought, I need to save my strength. So then I only clapped for names I recognized -- people they went to elementary school with, people in band and orchestra and choir and theater. It went on and on and on.

Finally it ended. We climbed up the stairs again, and then down the outside stairs, and started looking for the kids. It took forever to find Teen B. We took some pictures. It was starting to rain, so we agreed to meet at the Southside Walnut Cafe for lunch. We took my sister back to her hotel (she and her husband would come in their car, with the dog). Miss Trish went ahead. Teen A went ahead. We finally got there too. We waited in the light rain for a table for seven. They finally gave us two tables close together, which was fine. I had a latte and a waffle. It was delicious, but I was fading. As we sat there, it began to pour.

We ran for our cars, headed home. My sister and her husband went back to their hotel room so she could have a nap. Rocket Boy took one too. Teen A went off to find his girlfriend (and unbeknownst to us, attend the other high school's graduation which started at 2 pm). Meanwhile, at home, Teen B and I watched the other high school's graduation on YouTube (I also took another pain pill). Then we started to watch the replay of his graduation, to see things we'd missed. Around 4:30 or so, my sister and her husband and the bulldog came over again and we stood around in the front yard (it had stopped raining by then) and looked at birds. Four western tanagers were flying around the yard across the street! I never see them here. Maybe were migrating through. 

After they left, Teen B and I went to Starbucks, even though it was 5:30 or so. Can't miss that Sunday tradition, right? And an hour later we met up with my sister and her husband for dinner at BJ's. I was not hungry at all, but I had a bowl of soup. Afterwards we hugged goodbye. It was so wonderful that she was able to come out for the graduation. I will never forget how wonderful that was.

I think I'm forgetting a lot of things, but I will stop here because it's 10 pm and I know Rocket Boy wants to go to bed. He has to get up and go to work tomorrow morning! And Nancy and Rick and the bulldog have to get on the road for home. It's supposed to snow on I-80. Well, sure, it's only the middle of May. (We're only supposed to get rain, but it could snow a little tomorrow night.) 

I still can't believe it's over. What comes next? For the boys, it's the rest of their lives, all the exciting parts. For me, and for Rocket Boy, it's a gradual downward slope, but I hope it's a pleasant slide. We shall see.  

Crazy last days

It's almost over. One more day of regular classes, then two days of finals, then no more class, just graduation rehearsal and graduation itself and then it's all over. By this time next week, my kids will no longer be enrolled in the Boulder Valley School District.

OMG.

Today, of course, is Mothers Day, but I'm not making a big deal out of that. Rocket Boy got me a card and he and the twins signed it, and we MIGHT go out to dinner, but we'll see. We went out last night, to horrible Cracker Barrel. I actually found something good on the menu, an egg sandwich, that reminded me a little of my mother's old Denver sandwiches. Except I didn't get mine with bacon, just a slice of cheese and sliced tomatoes, and I had my eggs over easy instead of scrambled. It was delicious, unlike almost everything else at Cracker Barrel. Also I had watermelon lemonade to drink, which was also delicious.

It reminded me of when the boys were little and they sold watermelon lemonade from our driveway for a quarter. I think that was in 2014, when they were six. I found a picture of them selling limeade that summer, but I think that was also watermelon lemonade summer. Or it could have been 2015.

Memories.

The thing about Mothers Day... all over Reddit, mothers are terribly upset because their kids have gone "radio silent," aren't doing anything for Mothers Day. Maybe in 10 years I'll be all upset like that. But it's hard to imagine. For me, a good Mothers Day would be one in which I don't have to do a lot of work. I don't need someone to buy me flowers.

This Mothers Day I actually AM having to do a lot of work, specifically laundry. For quite a while now we've been smelling a bad smell in our bed, and this morning we finally figured out that our problem cat, Sillers, had peed all over the bed at various times. There were big yellow stains on the mattress pad. So we took the whole bed apart, including the mattress pad, including the cover on the mattress pad, and washed everything. Four separate loads to get all the blankets and everything washed (Rocket Boy has three extra blankets on his side because he has no body fat and gets cold). Let's see, I washed the mattress pad cover, the bottom sheet, the top sheet, the pillowcases, the blanket, RB's three extra blankets, the comforter, and the cat blanket that goes on top of the comforter. Plus an old sheet that I used to cover some of the flowers during our snow this past week. Somehow that added up to four loads. Fortunately it's a beautiful day and things dried quickly. We also put the mattress pad on the line for an hour or so. We also treated the mattress pad cover with Nature's Miracle. But now we have to figure out how to keep the cat off the clean bed. I'm going to call the vet tomorrow. Maybe she has a bladder infection or something else fixable.

I also spent a couple of hours helping Teen B with his stats project, and we still have Personal Finance ahead of us. We finished the language arts project last night. 

This was a very busy week. Monday I saw my doctor because of the knee pain I've been having. She did a very thorough exam, plus an x-ray, and decided that, as I suspected, I have a Baker's cyst, even though she couldn't feel it. She said they don't typically drain them, because they just recur, so I have to live with it until it resolves on its own.

It's getting worse and worse, though. She said I could use heat, painkillers, massage. When it gets really bad I take ibuprofen, but I don't want to dose myself constantly. It's getting hard to walk, so I haven't gone for many walks for the past few weeks. I'll reevaluate the situation when we get past all the end of school stuff.

The x-ray results said I have "mild tricompartment osteophytosis." That means I'm developing little bone spurs on all three parts of the knee. This is bad, but I'm going to focus on the "mild" part of it. I'm nowhere near needing a knee replacement. The arthritis is probably what caused the Baker's cyst.

Tuesday night was the last choir concert, which we attended even though it was already snowing. The choir director (who greeted us with "Welcome to our winter concert, lol")  had a slideshow with bios of all the graduating seniors projected onto the wall of the auditorium. I would have preferred a program, but she doesn't do programs for some reason. Anyway, it was VASTLY better than what the stupid band director did.

Wednesday was an actual snow day, no school at all, all activities canceled including the theater banquet (which Teen B wasn't going to anyway). We got ELEVEN inches of heavy, wet snow (about 1.71 inches of water, so good for our snowpack), and so so many branches broke off the trees. In our backyard there is an enormous branch that (thank heaven) fell on top of a juniper, not the roof. However, there's also a branch on the roof, that may have done a little damage. Rocket Boy thinks not. We will see.

I was a little skeptical about the whole snow day thing, like, come on, we can handle this much snow. But the tree branches coming down was a real issue. It would have been dangerous for kids walking to and from school. I was afraid to go out in the backyard. Also, our power went out a couple of times, although it didn't stay out.

Thursday it warmed up and everything melted. By the end of the day there was no snow left. None. All eleven inches melted into the grateful ground.

Friday, I took Baby Kitty to the vet because his cat asthma, or whatever it is, has been getting worse. The vet decided it was time to move on to the pill form of prednisone, instead of injections. I was worried about that until he told me that I could grind the pills up and mix them with his food. So I'm doing that. It's very easy. I grind a pill up using a mortar and pestle, stir it into his wet food, and he eats it all up.

However, I'm not sure it's actually helping. The vet said we would see an immediate improvement and BK is still having attacks. Maybe not as many. The next step, if this doesn't work, is a pediatric inhaler, which sounds impossible. We'll keep trying the pills for a while.

Cats. Why do we have them, exactly?

Also on Friday, Teen B, Rocket Boy, and I attended the 150th anniversary celebration of the kids' high school, which graduated its first class in 1876. It was the first public high school in Colorado, or maybe the oldest that's still operating, something like that. (Its motto is "Still the First!" which I think is silly -- how could it stop being the first?) The actual building is not that old, only 90 years old, completed in 1936, but it seems ancient. Since 1936 they've remodeled it over and over, added on, not thought through what they were doing when they added on to it, etc. It's an absolute maze. I love it so much.

There's a staircase in the library that students are not allowed to go up. It has little signs all over the stairs, strictly forbidding students. During the celebration you were allowed to wander all over the school, so we went up the forbidden staircase. At the top were THREE locked doors. We don't know what they lead to. Why are there three? We will never know.

Teen B commented that after this coming week, he probably will never go in the school again. I pointed out that he could attend the 200th anniversary celebration, when he's 68. Or maybe they'll celebrate the 100th anniversary of the actual building, which would be in only 10 years. 

I got so sad about not being able to go in the building anymore that I started thinking about becoming a substitute teacher again.

On Saturday we did a lot of homework, and we've done a lot more today (plus we'll do more as soon as I finish this). Today, in addition to all that laundry, Rocket Boy and I did manage to go to the nursery and get more plants: more marigolds, more impatiens, basil & parsley & a tomato plant -- and a fuchsia! I love getting a fuchsia for Mothers Day. Rocket Boy said that this year he will hang it up for me, so I'll look forward to that. Hummingbirds came to my feeder all through the winter storm, so I was very glad I had that up. And the mama finch is still sitting on her eggs, very bravely. 

We ended up having dinner tonight at Boulder Social, so I didn't have to cook on Mothers Day after all. I had the heavenly golden beet salad (with goat cheese, golden raisins, pecans, salad greens, and a balsamic dressing, plus I added grilled salmon). It was so good. Tomorrow I'll cook. The kids both ordered tacos, and Teen A didn't eat his sides. When Rocket Boy admonished him, he said "I'm not going to eat no rice and beans." I said, "I'm not going to eat ANY rice and beans," but I started to laugh in the middle of it and couldn't finish. I love my boys.

There's so much coming up this week ahead. The last three days of school. My book group comes Wednesday night. My sister and her husband and bulldog arrive Thursday. The kids have a whole bunch of activities on Friday. Sunday is graduation. Oh, and it's going to be REALLY hot. Wish us luck getting through everything.