Weekend Update

I had a great weekend. Friday night I had dinner at Mexicali with my friend DD and her cute, little, baby girl. She is so cute I wanted to eat her chunkies with a spoon. Saturday I picked up my son and drug him with me to a graduation ceremony. The graduation was for kids who were kicked out of regular school. They are the kids people thought would never graduate, so you can imagine how excited everybody is. I started crying when they all marched in so proudly in the cap and gown.

This graduation is not like graduations at “regular” schools. It’s very personal. Instead of having a guest speaker they had four students give speeches. The first girl spoke about cutting school, doing drugs, and how her father is in prison “because of a murder.” It was very emotional.

The audience at this graduation was, oh… how should I put it? Fairly ghetto. They were noisy, they didn’t follow directions, and there were lots of shout outs at inappropriate times. It was hilarious. My son said he felt like his IQ was slipping and told me as we were leaving that he NEVER wants to graduate like that. (Which is exactly why I took him.)

After the ceremony Paul and I met my nephew for lunch. My brother’s oldest son, Jack, is a 19-year-old ‘I’m going to be a rock star’ survivor. He was doing well in all his GATE and AP classes and he had already been accepted to college. Then he started cutting class, screwing up and throwing it all away. He was too distracted by his band and his fame. He even moved out with nowhere to go. He ended up staying with me for a few months. I had to make sure he finished school. Once he graduated I told him he either needs to pay me rent or kick rocks. He ended up sleeping on a dirty couch at some dude’s house for a couple of months until he got sick of partying like a rock star and went home. Now he works for a plumber.

Jack and Paul and I had a nice conversation that included Paul telling us about going blind and getting a guide horse, and Jack telling us he once ate dog poop. Typical conversation for my family.

Saturday night I met some old friends at Zander’s. I had never been in the bar before. It’s downstairs in the basement and it’s small but very cool. They had food and a DJ spinning some really good music. There was no room to dance, of course, but the music was good. I had a lot of fun talking with my old college buddies I don’t get to see very often. I ended up staying up till 3 in the morning talking.

Sunday was a beautiful day and I spent it working in my yard and my house. Chuck was in a pool tournament all weekend and Sunday was the finals so I was waiting to hear from him to find out if he won. He FINALLY called me and sure enough – he won! He’s going to Vegas baby. I’m not going – he’s going. He said I can’t go cuz I would make him nervous. Whatever.

I’m making plans to go anyway. I’ll just disguise myself and sneak in.