Endings

School is winding down. B.'s senior year is almost over. He's spent the last two weeks doing senior activities....last week, Disneyland. Yesterday was 'Beach Day' - they turn the high school pool into a 'beach' and the kids hang out all day and swim, eat, etc. Kind of like our Senior ditch day - only we didn't have a pool at our high school, so we went to Big Surf ('beach' like place with wave machine) for the day. I remember Mr. B. being totally 'upset' that I was actually ditching - me, Ms. Follow All Rules....but I did ditch. And it felt great and I had a great time. B. had a good time, too, except his best friend deciding to skip the pool party and go golfing. With his girlfriend. I think B. was disappointed by that - but it's a life lesson: a guy with a girlfriend is likely to start spending a lot of time with the girlfriend and less time with his best friend. It hurts but it's the truth.

B.'s grades are continuing their downward trend, and it appears there is actually a possibility that he may not graduate....very slight, but possible. He assures us he 'has it under control'. I don't know how that's possible in looking at the grade book - but I'm trying not to think too much about it. It is what it is at this point and no amount of fretting on my part is going to change anything. If he fails a course and they hold his diploma, he'll spend the summer taking an online course to offset the grade...I hope.

I'm sending out his graduation announcements tomorrow (yes, they are late but it can't be helped. Too many things to do and not enough time). [And yes, I have been ruminating about 'well, should I send announcements when there exists the slightest chance he may not actually get his diploma on the 30th?....but he will graduate....and so I'm sending them. It will work out and he will graduate....so I am proceeding as planned. What else can I do?] I was all set to arrive home last night and get right to them - but instead, arrived home and arranged an impromptu pizza party for H. and 4 friends who were in the pool and hot tub when I arrived home. It was 'fun' in a crazy sort of way. Damn dog barks like a maniac CONSTANTLY when there are 'strangers' in the house...but other than that, it was a nice evening.

We are heading to Anderson, CA this weekend to visit my sister and her hubby, who are attending a racing event. My brother-in-law is famous....it's true. If you follow racing, you'd probably know his name...when I asked my sister how we will find her, and she asked her husband, he said 'just have her ask for [insert his name here]'s pit - and they'll know where we are'. And he's right....he's pretty well known. I've found a lot of old racing programs with him on the cover and/or inside - and I bought a few for my sister to use in the 'man-shrine' room they have in their house. A sweeter guy (well, second sweetest since my J. is the sweetest) doesn't exist on the planet and he has not a bit of 'star-stuffiness' about him. We're really excited to be spending the day with them, in a race environment....the boys are stoked. We're taking Chloe to the kennel just so we won't have to worry about her all day and into the late evening. We can do what we want...all weekend. We'll pick her up Monday afternoon.

And Monday is H.'s 16th birthday. I consider the shopping for this occasion pretty much 'done' since there's a 'new' (used) car parked in front of our house. Now, we're definitely not the kind of people that buy their child a car for their birthday...it just happened to be that we found a great deal on a great car and we snapped it up - and it coincided with H.'s birthday. SCORE! No shopping! And now, whenever he asks for money for something, I point to the car parked on the curb in front of our house - and that answers his question. He's going to do some work around here for me this summer (weeds, helping to build raised beds for veggies, etc.) and will be reffing for soccer this summer/fall, too. That's GREAT money for weekend work. He's already scoping out sub-woofers, etc.

Work is hectic as usual. I am heading to Stockton today for a huge budget meeting - none of the measures on the ballot yesterday passed, which means our revenue is being reduced AGAIN for this year (the year that is OVER in six weeks, by the way - so they're cutting revenue for the year that we are currently IN for expenses that we've already INCURRED and cannot 'un-incur'. Pretty damn hard to reduce expenses that have already happened). Not to mention additional reductions next year....our district is very, VERY fortunate but some districts are not so lucky - many will be 'in the red' officially, which is bad in so many ways....it's crazy that our state is unable to balance a budget. It's going to be very challenging to put together the budget that's due to our Board on June 16th with all the changes that will now be needed since the measures didn't pass. Long days ahead...

Time to head upstairs and start the day. Dishwasher humming along. 2nd latte consumed. Have Map Quested my destination and need to find a Starbucks enroute for my daily stop for tea.