Yesterday Sweet Baboo, Daughter, Daughter's Husband, Oldest Son, and James (Mini-baboo's best friend) and I sat in the upper bleachers at the Santa Ana Star Event Center and played whatever games were on our phones (Brick-breaker, Solitare, nothing, a game I'm not familiar with, another game I'm not familiar with, and Sudoku, respectively) for nearly 3 hours. Shortly before all this started we converged at the outer door to the center and I handed outadmission tickets for Mini-baboo's graduation, stopping after all present had received their ticket, and said, wondering, "why do I have an extra ticket?"
Oh. Crap! We'd forgotten to pick up Mini-baboo's best friend. We'd driven 30 miles, arrived 5 minutes before the ceremony was to begin, parking our 2 cars quite some distance away. I looked at Sweet Baboo helplessly. "Can you go get James?" and then, Baboo gave me his patented, patient look. "What's his house number?"
Oh. Uh. I dunno. It's a white house, I think. I think it's past the 2nd speed hump. There's, uh, a brown mailbox, I think.
Pay attention for a moment and you'll see why I married him: he looked at me with his patented, patient look, and said, Okay, making him just about the best sport in the world. He returned about 30 minutes later with said kid, and we sat side-by-side and played our phone games,
except for the moment when Mini-baboo's name was called, and we yelled like crazy and then immediately went back to playing our games.
My favorite part of the ceremony was during the commencement address, when the speaker gave, as part of his advice to the seniors, "Quit showing your underwear. It's called underwear for a reason. And quit talking in text," eliciting a cheer from the audience.
Eventually, they were declared graduates, and whoops and confetti hit the air.
I noticed that when the kids sprayed their confetti around, that some of the confetti went up, some of it hit the floor immediately, and some of it floated upward and seemed to hang, suspended, in the air. I wondered if it were an analogy for life after high school.
Then we all went home for an open house for Mini. Friends and family from
DP's people gave Mini-baboo a copy of Oh, the Places You'll Go by Dr. Seuss. Mini-baboo good-naturedly chased about six kids around the yard until, eventually, he'd had enough of small kids and then went off with his older brother for a while.
We started on his cake while he was gone. He didn't seem to mind. My very favorite moment of the day came when a fellow-triatlete, Mighty Mike, told me sincerely what a good kid Mini-baboo is, and how we'd done such a good job. Mighty Mike is a probation and parole officer. It's all Baboo, I assured him. If it weren't for him, Mini-baboo would have had long, blue hair and probably be not as respectful as he is.
Today he'll travel to Dallas for 3 weeks to visit family, and then to Navy boot camp.
As for me, I've had visitors for the past 18 days straight. I am simply looking forward to having a bit of quiet and being able to leave the doors open again, and getting back into my training routine.
And so, he is launched! In 3....2....1.....
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