Transitions

In spite of what I projected in my last post, it turned out that I took almost no photos last weekend. While Dave was taking dozens of photos, I was programming my mother's birthday gift: an electronic photo frame. Before leaving home, I had scanned some old family photos into my computer and prepared them for uploading onto her memory card. I also included an assortment of photos of Dave, the boys and me that have been taken over the years. When we got to my mother's house, I added photos provided by my sister and brother. It took awhile, but the effort was well rewarded. Mom was thrilled when I set up the frame and scrolled through the photos, and the family enjoyed talking about various memories the images brought to mind.

How old were some of the photos? Well, one dated back to when Mom was 3 years old! Since she will turn 80 next Thursday, you can do the math. We also had some photos of my mom and dad as teenagers (including Mom's high school graduation picture). More recent photos included Mom and Paul's wedding (they've been married nearly 23 years - Ha! I've been married longer than they have!) and photos of the great-grandchildren, including Campbell, who will turn 1 in two weeks.

Last weekend, we celebrated a long life live well. This weekend, Dave and I are thinking about young lives heading into the future. Joshua has now finished high school. Last night we attended his final high school band concert. Today was his last day of classes and, as I write, he and several friends are attending the Senior Prom. Tomorrow, he flies to Texas for his summer adventure. That will be followed immediately by his collegiate educational adventure. He will not return to Virginia until Christmas break, in about six months. Jonathan's future is not quite so well demarcated yet, but it's becoming increasingly clear that, before long, his life will revolve much less around parents and brother, and much more around starting a family of his own. Last week, my brother asked him if his universe is centered on Maggie. Jonathan grinned sheepishly and said, "Pretty much." Dennis smiled and answered, "Yeah, I remember those days."

So, for the past few weeks, I've been thinking a lot about transitions and the circle of life. My mother had a weird "ah ha" moment last weekend. Samantha (age 8) asked Mom where Grandpa was. Mom answered that he was sitting in his chair by the TV. Samantha retorted, "No, not that grandpa - my grandpa." She meant, of course, my brother, or, from my mother's perspective, her son. She was momentarily taken aback thinking of her son as somebody's grandfather. Her response: we have too many grandfathers in this family.

I had an "ah ha" moment of my own during a recent conversation with a friend whose youngest daughter (a good friend of Joshua's) will be going to college in South Carolina this fall. We both confessed to having mixed feelings about the whole empty nest thing, and I eventually said, "You realize, of course, that we did the same thing to our parents. We were the ones who broke away then. Now it's our turn to experience the letting go thing." That perspective is helping me deal with the fact that Dave and I, as well as the boys, are transitioning into a new life phase. We don't really know what the next phase will be like, but the only thing we can do is step forward, boldly, and continue living life to its fullest.

Momentous Memorial Day Weekend

In addition to being Memorial Day weekend, this is the weekend my entire family is getting together to celebrate my mother's 80th birthday! All four generations of the family will gather in Pennyslvania for a weekend of celebration, reminiscence and reunion. Pics will follow next week.

Stray Thought Saturday

I guess today's a good time to catch up on family news, such as it is. One piece of good news is that Dave's annual spring travels have pretty much concluded. He may have a few day trips here or there over the next few months, but the airlines won't be seeing him and his iPod for awhile. We're both glad about that. I think my car has memorized the routes to Dulles, Reagan and BWI airports.

Dave pointed out to me that I mentioned my promotion a few weeks ago, but didn't say what I'm doing. I'll correct that now: I am now the Human Resources Manager at work. The promotion came with a substantial raise in salary (very nice) and at a time when I've got to initiate and complete several major projects within the next three months (not quite so nice). So, I hire and fire people (hiring is much more enjoyable), track their attendance, process all sorts of paperwork for them: benefit enrollments, vacation requests, etc., make sure they take their online training sessions and so on. I'm enjoying it very much and am beginning to feel like I'm getting a handle on it. It took a few days to get the hang of the daily attendance report, which is distributed no later than 8:15 a.m.every morning. Any attendance events that occur after 8:15 a.m. are recorded on tomorrow's report because today is already a done deal - and I've only been at work for 1/2 hour! I must be getting the hang of it, because it's beginning to make a weird sort of sense to me.

Jonathan spent the first week of May at the Outer Banks with a Certain Young Lady and her family. They had a nice time, but the weather pooped out on them late in the week and they ended up coming home a day early. I don't know when he's going to take his second vacation week or where he's going to go. Generally, his life is rolling along a day at a time. No big news there yet, but keep checking with us :).

Joshua has about two weeks of school left before he flies to Texas. He's busy taking exams and packing these days. This weekend he's playing in the pit orchestra for the school musical, Into the Woods. Dave, Jonathan and I are going to see it tonight (Maggie will be out of town with some girl friends, so Jonathan is stuck with Mom and Dad). I've never seen this musical before. Joshua says the music is great but the story is a bit weird, as most of the characters die by the end. I asked, "If everybody dies, who sings the last song to let the audience know that the story's over?" He said, "Their spirits." 'Nuff said.

In lieu of singing to you, I'll just write this in plain English: this post is now over. The End.

Foto Friday #3

In honor of Mother's Day, I offer this cute pic I took at the San Diego Zoo last month - a gorilla mother and child: