Spark, Crackle, Pop

My children have left me for the summer taking with them the two computers (of course) leaving me stranded, off the grid, out of touch, and totally unplugged. Yes people, I know, I need to get my own computer. You do however realize that if I have my own computer and don't have to beg, barter, or guilt my kids into letting me use theirs, you may hear from me A LOT more than you had anticipated. I personally think you can never get enough of me, but then again, I am a little biased.

I was thinking of graduation and all the people I know who graduated this year. It's funny how graduation ceremonies haven't really changed over the years. The little high school I graduated from has the exact same tradition – the Friday before graduation they have an assembly to announce each person's plans after high school, and to announce scholarships, they also have a little senior walk and put some sort of card in a box that will be buried under a slab in the courtyard. Do they ever dig them up? If so, when? Or is my little card doomed to live in the little box under the placard of the year I graduated forever? Then there is baccalaureate and seriously, who actually enjoys that? Then graduation. A time to get all dressed up to celebrate what should be a given in society today – that yay! you graduated from high school. Ok, I know I'm getting a little cynical but it seems so antiquated and all the ceremonies are truly boring. Plus, if you look at it logically, graduating from high school isn't that big of a deal. Now graduating from college – that's a big deal. High school, not so much in my book. It's a nice accomplishment and hopefully a springboard to some major accomplishments to come. Don't get me wrong, I'm excited for my kids to graduate and I'm excited for all the kids I know who have just graduated. And I'm sure I'll cry at my kids' graduations (since I pretty much cry at anything flashback to first goal in pee-wee soccer). I think I'm mostly excited for their next steps after graduation. The best part about graduation though…for the kids is the money they get…for me...I love having another reason to buy cards. One of my accomplishments, one that I take WAY too much pride in – is my ability to find just the right card. Gifts too for that matter. I have a gift for it. Okay, maybe not a gift, maybe it's just patience reading through all the cards until I find just the right one, but I do it because I care. You're welcome.

I had a little thrill Saturday morning. I heard this strange noise and discovered it was coming from my hot water closet. I opened the door to see sparks coming out of the top of my water heater. AAHHHHH!!!!! Okay, where’s the breaker box? Gotta turn this thing off!!! Just as I find the switch for the hot water heater – POP! Then silence. Phew, no fire and hey wait, no electricity. Ok, flip the other breakers to reset them and…nothing. Hey!!! Okay, call the emergency maintenance people. Leave a message for them to call me back, get a call a couple minutes later, heart still racing and oh great, now I have to scramble to get decent because I'm not letting this guy see me in my messy apartment in my pj's. Get myself and the house in presentable order and have sweat dripping off me by the time he gets there. He resets the breaker outside and then fixes a little drip from the air conditioning unit that was dripping onto the top of the hot water heater, replaces fried wire for hot water heater and presto – it's fixed! Yay!!!! Hot water again and electricity and ceiling fans and air conditioning. Heat wave, you don't scare me (at least not any more you don't)!!!!!!

Three's No More

I am a little sad this weekend - with good measure. Just found out a dear, dear family friend died this weekend. I'm also a little out of sorts and my brain seems fidgety - semi-good reason for this. I'm trying to think of the other two now or racking my brain trying to figure out if this was number 3 and the cycle is done or possibly number 2...but mostly dreading the feeling that I'm back on a new cycle and this is number 1. I'm not superstitious by any mean, I don't believe in curses or jinxes, I don't knock on wood or throw salt over my shoulder. Ok, I HAVE thrown salt over my shoulder but only because it's fun to throw food over your shoulder. But there is one pattern that does seem to hold true and that is that death comes in 3's. Is it a superstition? I don't know. What I do know is that I can't think of any other two deaths in my circle so this is number 1 in the grouping meaning there are two more to go. That has me very discombobulated. I don't like this train of thought because as I get older and my family members are aging, I'm going to be dealing with this more and more. Whoever came up with death in 3's anyway? And what were they doing that they noticed people were dying in groupings of 3? And how close together does it need to be? Could it be over a years time? Two years? Is it just for people in my circle or people I hear about in general? Does it have to be someone I care about or are there levels of removal like a family friend compared to a 3rd cousin I met once? And who's to say it doesn't come in 6's? Or 9's for that matter? Again, we are back to the time frame issue. So while I said that the pattern seems to hold true, I think it holds true because we THINK it holds true. We've heard the school of thought so we try to find those connections. If we had never heard the theory that death comes in 3's, would we still try to group them together? There are just so many unanswered questions and too many holes for me. No more 3's. I don't accept. The rules seem ambiguous and undefined so I'm not going along with that train of thought anymore.