4 posts tagged “graduation”
It was inevitable. I am now about to launch into the excruciatingly painful minutia of details that will fill up my week and lead us up to the long awaited, long anticipated, much needed day of departure for our holiday, complete with beach, tropical drinks, warm days, less warm nights and 4 teenagers. This is the holiday that is devoted (mostly) to my now graduated daughter - her graduation prezzie. We bought our first time-share about a year ago. It is the beginning of what we hope will be a long and happy love affair with the club of time-share owners. For the small price of a yearly maintanence fee we have a lovely 2 bedroom, 2 bath, beach front condo, complete with kitchen for me to cook in lol. Some vacation right? Not so bad, I don't mind cooking if someone else will clean up for me, and I have the added advantage that my husband also does not mind cooking, and he doesn't seem to mind the cleanup either.
So I have a whole list of things to complete before we load up the car and drive to Phx (much to expensive to fly out of Yuma, so the majority of the population here drives either to Phoenix or San Diego in order to fly to all points N, S, E, and W.) We are taking a red-eye flight, mostly because I intend to get as much out of the week as possible. We "go in" on Saturday...if we flew on Saturday, chances are we would not arrive until 11pm or later and that means a whole day of our week is wasted. So I found a red-eye that flys out of Phoenix at 11pm and arrives (via couple hour lay over in Atl) in South Palm Beach at 9.30am Saturday. By the time we get out luggage, settle the rental car details, get some brekkie, and drive to Pompano Beach (about a 45 minute drive looks like?) then will will be well into the afternoon, and we can enjoy the day swimming, exploring, (napping) shopping for food for the kitchen and planning out our week. We have only seen pictures of this particular resort, but the reviews are high from current owners and those who have stayed there. So I am not terribly worried, but there is always a bit of apprehension when flying across the country to a place we have never been too, staying in a condo we have not had the chance to check out. Heres to hoping that it is everything that we are expecting. We are a beach front resort, but also near the inter-coastal waterway there. We are just a short drive to Miami and Fort Lauderdale. I don't think that there will be a shortage of things to do. There seems to be a huge list of activities for teenages and adults alike there on sight, and if we don't feel like getting sand in all of our crevaces we have the choice of 3 large pools to relax by. There appears to be a luau type dinner on-sight and I would like to see just what Florida's version of a luau consists of.
I am taking the laptop, mostly for picture loading and editing if I get the chance, there is wireless internet in the lobby of the resort and outside around the lobby area, so if I get some down time I will log in and try to come up with something witty for the blog - if my sun burned, mai-tai drenched brain will allow it.
Right now I have too many things that I need to be doing that blogging has just put me seriously behind lol. So off I go into the wide expanse of my to do list. Wish me luck, not only in completing the to do list, but also in having a successful, restful, fun filled holiday with 4 girl teenagers. God help any boy teenagers who might be there at the same time we are!!
I know I woke with a song in my head this morning, as I was wrestling with one of the lyrics in my head upon waking, but I have forgotten what it was...I might need to put a pencil and paper on the nightstand if this keeps up.
one more thing, here is a picture of Ariceli and Justin (boyfriend) after graduation...
and Celi and her friend Daisy...
and Celi "walking the line"
So I have a whole list of things to complete before we load up the car and drive to Phx (much to expensive to fly out of Yuma, so the majority of the population here drives either to Phoenix or San Diego in order to fly to all points N, S, E, and W.) We are taking a red-eye flight, mostly because I intend to get as much out of the week as possible. We "go in" on Saturday...if we flew on Saturday, chances are we would not arrive until 11pm or later and that means a whole day of our week is wasted. So I found a red-eye that flys out of Phoenix at 11pm and arrives (via couple hour lay over in Atl) in South Palm Beach at 9.30am Saturday. By the time we get out luggage, settle the rental car details, get some brekkie, and drive to Pompano Beach (about a 45 minute drive looks like?) then will will be well into the afternoon, and we can enjoy the day swimming, exploring, (napping) shopping for food for the kitchen and planning out our week. We have only seen pictures of this particular resort, but the reviews are high from current owners and those who have stayed there. So I am not terribly worried, but there is always a bit of apprehension when flying across the country to a place we have never been too, staying in a condo we have not had the chance to check out. Heres to hoping that it is everything that we are expecting. We are a beach front resort, but also near the inter-coastal waterway there. We are just a short drive to Miami and Fort Lauderdale. I don't think that there will be a shortage of things to do. There seems to be a huge list of activities for teenages and adults alike there on sight, and if we don't feel like getting sand in all of our crevaces we have the choice of 3 large pools to relax by. There appears to be a luau type dinner on-sight and I would like to see just what Florida's version of a luau consists of.
I am taking the laptop, mostly for picture loading and editing if I get the chance, there is wireless internet in the lobby of the resort and outside around the lobby area, so if I get some down time I will log in and try to come up with something witty for the blog - if my sun burned, mai-tai drenched brain will allow it.
Right now I have too many things that I need to be doing that blogging has just put me seriously behind lol. So off I go into the wide expanse of my to do list. Wish me luck, not only in completing the to do list, but also in having a successful, restful, fun filled holiday with 4 girl teenagers. God help any boy teenagers who might be there at the same time we are!!
I know I woke with a song in my head this morning, as I was wrestling with one of the lyrics in my head upon waking, but I have forgotten what it was...I might need to put a pencil and paper on the nightstand if this keeps up.
one more thing, here is a picture of Ariceli and Justin (boyfriend) after graduation...
Jennifer Hudson in the movie Dream Girls sings Love you I do. This was floating in my head when I awoke today.
This one seems to be pretty cut and dry. I do love my husband. The song itself is a catchy little tune, reminiscent of the earlier days of rock and roll - 50'ish, bubblegum'ish, but fun to listen too none-the-less. One of my favourite songs of the sound track. Jennifer is singing it to her love and so it is something that I attach to the feelings of the love in my life. Mike, I love you I do.
Graduation
I am disappointed. Don't get me wrong I am thrilled that my baby graduated. Someone asked me last night how I was feeling - happy, sad? what? I immediately said I am very happy. The last of my chicks has taken flight from her nest. She doesn't go very far right now, just soars the sky's in our little corner of the world, but she is a daring chick. I have no doubt that she will soon expand her territory and one day, maybe not too far in the future, she will not return to the nest. But for now I am happy and all is right with the world... now about that disappointment.
The graduation ceremony itself, suppose to be full of pomp and circumstance, suppose to be a reverent occasion, solemn and respectful and it was anything but those things. Mike and I had a discussion about this very thing this morning. This was his first experience with any sort of educational graduation ceremony. People in New Zealand really don't celebrate this right of passage as we do. So he was intrigued with it and asked lots of questions prior to it, including "ummm how do I dress for this" I hold education in high respect and esteem, I wanted to reflect those feelings so I told him dressy casual.
First disappointment, the overall dress of the general audience ranged from casual dress ( like us) to filthy disgusting and I-don't-give-a-shit-what-I-look-like. No wonder kids are the way they are. If the parents don't care what they look like - how they act, why should the students.
2nd disappointment. Speeches. We heard from various administrators of course, but what I enjoy most are the speeches that are prepared by the various student speakers, valedictorian, student body president, senior class president. As each one took the stage I expected inspirational words, creative thinking, outside the box prose. As each student fumbled through his/her speech - mind you stumbling on such words as future, education, teacher, etc I was left with the distinct impression that some of these kids had sat down just the night before and penned out their words with the goal to just get it done and get to the grad parties later, rather then to get it done right and make it memorable. One students speech, however, left me with the impression that she had put some thought into it and was not satisfied with speaking the same old words, the same ole cliche's ( ie: today is the first day of the rest of our lives! wow profound.) She spoke fairly eloquently, though still rushed through it in lightening speed hoping the rest of us did not hear how she butchered the words at points. The rest of the speeches left me flat and incredulous. These young adults are suppose to be the leaders of this class, they are suppose to set the pace to which the rest of the student body aspires to...well let me tell you, if the kids aspire to be like the student leaders I saw last night, they are in for a mediocre life indeed. All in all it was a let down.
3rd disappointment. The behavior of the families. We have mostly all been through it, either as being graduates ourselves or having our kids graduate. A name is called to go to the stage and retrieve his/her diploma and suddenly there are blow horns and loud, annoying, noise makes that burst forth to welcome the graduate as they ascend the stage, this boisterousness continues well into the next name and sometimes into the name after that being announced and so the family of the subsequent students can't have the joy of hearing their child's name called. Ugh. Rude, disrespectful and just this side of trailer park behaviour. An announcement was made just prior to the ceremony beginning to please be respectful to other families and refrain from that sort of thing. Cheering and clapping was fine, but please no noise makers.... well so much for making a civilized reasonable request. The whole thing sounded like a flippin pep rally.
4th disappointment, well this really isn't a disappointment as it is just a general observation, and perhaps can be looked at as the reason for some of the above disappointments. I would say that 80% of the graduation class ( and therefore about 95% of the audience) was hispanic. Hispanics tend to take their whole bloody family to everything they go to. So we saw families 30 strong grouped together (along with their noise makers) forcing their way to some open seating, many times disregarding the fact that the seats might already be taken but the seat owner had gone to get something to drink. Protestations by people in the area of said taken seats were casually dismissed and ignored, the hispanic families feigning false non-comprehension due to the language barrier. Anyway, I didn't realize that there was such a disparity in the student population. :sigh: There is also something well known within the EMS/Law enfourcement community called "mexican hysterics" Mexicans are an emotional group. The smallest thing will set them off, so you can imagine what something like one within their own ranks actually graduating high school does to them. Double ugh. Remember I live in a border town (US), coexisting with most US border towns is a corresponding mexican border town. These towns are usually very impoverished, relying mostly on tourism to make a living, to the point of hawking their wares along the street that the cars crowd on to enter back into the US. Its not a pretty sight. Many times the families will put out their most pathetic member, such as someone with a physical deformity, or an elderly member, in order to gain the sympathy sales. This is the mentality of many of the hispanic families that live on the US side of the border and it shows in many ways that they approach life.
Enough of the disappointments. It was a good night for me on a personal level and so it goes.
I did meet my ex-friend and the good doc. They are like me I think, not changed much, just a bit older. My friend and I had a chance to talk a bit and do some minor catching up, but we both agreed it was not long enough, so she took my number and will call me this week so we can, as they say, "do lunch" There was no awkwardness, and seemed no anger on either part. I truely enjoyed seeing her and I think it was vice versa. So I am cautiously optimistic and will take it one day at a time.
This one seems to be pretty cut and dry. I do love my husband. The song itself is a catchy little tune, reminiscent of the earlier days of rock and roll - 50'ish, bubblegum'ish, but fun to listen too none-the-less. One of my favourite songs of the sound track. Jennifer is singing it to her love and so it is something that I attach to the feelings of the love in my life. Mike, I love you I do.
Graduation
I am disappointed. Don't get me wrong I am thrilled that my baby graduated. Someone asked me last night how I was feeling - happy, sad? what? I immediately said I am very happy. The last of my chicks has taken flight from her nest. She doesn't go very far right now, just soars the sky's in our little corner of the world, but she is a daring chick. I have no doubt that she will soon expand her territory and one day, maybe not too far in the future, she will not return to the nest. But for now I am happy and all is right with the world... now about that disappointment.
The graduation ceremony itself, suppose to be full of pomp and circumstance, suppose to be a reverent occasion, solemn and respectful and it was anything but those things. Mike and I had a discussion about this very thing this morning. This was his first experience with any sort of educational graduation ceremony. People in New Zealand really don't celebrate this right of passage as we do. So he was intrigued with it and asked lots of questions prior to it, including "ummm how do I dress for this" I hold education in high respect and esteem, I wanted to reflect those feelings so I told him dressy casual.
First disappointment, the overall dress of the general audience ranged from casual dress ( like us) to filthy disgusting and I-don't-give-a-shit-what-I-look-like. No wonder kids are the way they are. If the parents don't care what they look like - how they act, why should the students.
2nd disappointment. Speeches. We heard from various administrators of course, but what I enjoy most are the speeches that are prepared by the various student speakers, valedictorian, student body president, senior class president. As each one took the stage I expected inspirational words, creative thinking, outside the box prose. As each student fumbled through his/her speech - mind you stumbling on such words as future, education, teacher, etc I was left with the distinct impression that some of these kids had sat down just the night before and penned out their words with the goal to just get it done and get to the grad parties later, rather then to get it done right and make it memorable. One students speech, however, left me with the impression that she had put some thought into it and was not satisfied with speaking the same old words, the same ole cliche's ( ie: today is the first day of the rest of our lives! wow profound.) She spoke fairly eloquently, though still rushed through it in lightening speed hoping the rest of us did not hear how she butchered the words at points. The rest of the speeches left me flat and incredulous. These young adults are suppose to be the leaders of this class, they are suppose to set the pace to which the rest of the student body aspires to...well let me tell you, if the kids aspire to be like the student leaders I saw last night, they are in for a mediocre life indeed. All in all it was a let down.
3rd disappointment. The behavior of the families. We have mostly all been through it, either as being graduates ourselves or having our kids graduate. A name is called to go to the stage and retrieve his/her diploma and suddenly there are blow horns and loud, annoying, noise makes that burst forth to welcome the graduate as they ascend the stage, this boisterousness continues well into the next name and sometimes into the name after that being announced and so the family of the subsequent students can't have the joy of hearing their child's name called. Ugh. Rude, disrespectful and just this side of trailer park behaviour. An announcement was made just prior to the ceremony beginning to please be respectful to other families and refrain from that sort of thing. Cheering and clapping was fine, but please no noise makers.... well so much for making a civilized reasonable request. The whole thing sounded like a flippin pep rally.
4th disappointment, well this really isn't a disappointment as it is just a general observation, and perhaps can be looked at as the reason for some of the above disappointments. I would say that 80% of the graduation class ( and therefore about 95% of the audience) was hispanic. Hispanics tend to take their whole bloody family to everything they go to. So we saw families 30 strong grouped together (along with their noise makers) forcing their way to some open seating, many times disregarding the fact that the seats might already be taken but the seat owner had gone to get something to drink. Protestations by people in the area of said taken seats were casually dismissed and ignored, the hispanic families feigning false non-comprehension due to the language barrier. Anyway, I didn't realize that there was such a disparity in the student population. :sigh: There is also something well known within the EMS/Law enfourcement community called "mexican hysterics" Mexicans are an emotional group. The smallest thing will set them off, so you can imagine what something like one within their own ranks actually graduating high school does to them. Double ugh. Remember I live in a border town (US), coexisting with most US border towns is a corresponding mexican border town. These towns are usually very impoverished, relying mostly on tourism to make a living, to the point of hawking their wares along the street that the cars crowd on to enter back into the US. Its not a pretty sight. Many times the families will put out their most pathetic member, such as someone with a physical deformity, or an elderly member, in order to gain the sympathy sales. This is the mentality of many of the hispanic families that live on the US side of the border and it shows in many ways that they approach life.
Enough of the disappointments. It was a good night for me on a personal level and so it goes.
I did meet my ex-friend and the good doc. They are like me I think, not changed much, just a bit older. My friend and I had a chance to talk a bit and do some minor catching up, but we both agreed it was not long enough, so she took my number and will call me this week so we can, as they say, "do lunch" There was no awkwardness, and seemed no anger on either part. I truely enjoyed seeing her and I think it was vice versa. So I am cautiously optimistic and will take it one day at a time.
Song of the day - Flo Rida's Low
Interesting as I am not usually into this sort of genre, the rap, gangsta, bad boy, exploiting women type thing. But there it is.
Again I am left scratching my head wondering what this song has to do with anything in my life. Maybe I am just reaching and these songs are nothing more then songs that my mind replays.
Son and Daughter-in-law are here and today is the big day - graduation so I have lots to do...hopefully I will have some pictures to show. Not sure if I am taking the SLR or the point and shoot. Would be much easier to lug around a credit card size camera as opposed to one the size of a toaster.
Interesting as I am not usually into this sort of genre, the rap, gangsta, bad boy, exploiting women type thing. But there it is.
Again I am left scratching my head wondering what this song has to do with anything in my life. Maybe I am just reaching and these songs are nothing more then songs that my mind replays.
Son and Daughter-in-law are here and today is the big day - graduation so I have lots to do...hopefully I will have some pictures to show. Not sure if I am taking the SLR or the point and shoot. Would be much easier to lug around a credit card size camera as opposed to one the size of a toaster.
This morning I awoke to the sounds of Maroon 5 in my head, specifically I Won't Go Home Without you. This one has me stumped. I can think of no one including myself who is going home, let alone going home without someone special.
So I remain in that state of wondering if these songs in my head speak to my subconscious and if they do, what are they trying to say to me?? Or maybe I am just insane as originally thought. But according to a couple of you who commented on the post concerning this yesterday, there are a few of us with this situation, and so far I have not read anything on any of these peoples blogs that would indicate they are insane - or even on the brink of it. So maybe what I read is not true, or maybe it is and we are just hiding it very well.
My husbands late wife suffered from multiple personality disorder. He related to me some of the story's concerning living with someone who was so damaged mentally and it was a hard life he led. Many times, during her trips to other personalities, she would do strange things, not recognize her husband, run away to get away from Mike, who she perceived to be a stranger. Then she would wake up in the morning and not remember a thing, wonder why she was were she was (one time he told me about how he set her up in a motel after she ran down the streets of their neighborhood proclaiming that she had been kidnapped by some strange man ( Mike) and pleading for someone to call the police). I can't imagine living like that - on either end- but especially his. She had the buffer of memory loss, he lived through it all and didn't have the liberty to forget the things that happened.
Anyway, the mind is a difficult thing.
So remember that picture I said I was entering in a Photo of the Month? if not go here . It was a tight race but in the end I took first place. So I am happy. I would really like to make something of this passion I have, but I am frustrated as to how to go about it. I seem to have a knack for photography and I do love it. I have managed to score a few weddings to photograph...but the well seems to have dried up in that area, and truthfully after watching Oxygen Channels (I think its O) series called Bridezilla...I am not so sure that this is the area I want to focus on. Great way to make money, but oy the headaches and heartaches that some of these wedding photogs go through. Pictures of special occasions are linked to such strong emotions, if you are not on the same page with the happy couple or the mother of the bride, it can be a disaster. So I keep searching and researching.
Today is the day before my daughters graduation. I think I am more excited then she is. My son and daughter-in-law will be here later today, but they are leaving to go back home on Saturday. Tomorrow night is the night I will see my friend (ex-friend?) and the good doctor for the first time in a long time. It is not bothering me as much as I thought it might. What happens happens and worrying or fretting over it will not change it.
1984
My daughter whirled into the house yesterday afternoon after the last of her finals insisting (demanding) I help her with a crossword puzzle that she had in hand. It had to be done by this morning in order for her boyfriend to graduate, err huh? Her bf is named Justin. Good kid, just a bit on the lazy procrastination side. Anyway, the puzzle was based on the novel 1984 - George Orwell. I read this novel back in my freshman english class (HS) as part of the required reading. I barely remembered the protagonists name. Winston something or other...oh yeah Smith. So there were a few words that were not filled in, Justin had managed to complete 75% of the puzzle, but he had several things he needed to do yesterday, and asked Ariceli if she would take a look and see if she could come up with the missing words. She couldn't so brought it home to me. Ordinarily I would have told her to go pound sand ( well not that rudely, but allude to the fact that I am not here to do her OR anyone else's homework) but it was a challenge to me and there were only 4 words left. I managed to get 2 more, but the last two left me stumped and scratching my head. I suspect that the teacher had given the answer somewhere in her lectures on the novel and you would have had to have been there AND listening to get them. One was "What is the mood set of the novel" This one really had me thinking, I recall a few different moods that the book seemed to convey, hopelessness, paranoia, anger, depressive etc. None of these fit however. The other question was "What does the Party not allow?" Well lots of things, privacy, records, diaries, history...None of these fit into the puzzle either.
So now I am thinking about returning to that novel and re-reading it. I might add Animal Farm as well. Oh! and then there was a reference to the book Watership Down that I read somewhere not long ago and thought I should re-read that one as well...
I think sometimes that these books, although they should be required reading in elementary and high school, they should also be required reading as adults.
Well this was a day of rambling, sorry, I know that it can be less then interesting when bloggers go on about the mundane things in their life.
So I remain in that state of wondering if these songs in my head speak to my subconscious and if they do, what are they trying to say to me?? Or maybe I am just insane as originally thought. But according to a couple of you who commented on the post concerning this yesterday, there are a few of us with this situation, and so far I have not read anything on any of these peoples blogs that would indicate they are insane - or even on the brink of it. So maybe what I read is not true, or maybe it is and we are just hiding it very well.
My husbands late wife suffered from multiple personality disorder. He related to me some of the story's concerning living with someone who was so damaged mentally and it was a hard life he led. Many times, during her trips to other personalities, she would do strange things, not recognize her husband, run away to get away from Mike, who she perceived to be a stranger. Then she would wake up in the morning and not remember a thing, wonder why she was were she was (one time he told me about how he set her up in a motel after she ran down the streets of their neighborhood proclaiming that she had been kidnapped by some strange man ( Mike) and pleading for someone to call the police). I can't imagine living like that - on either end- but especially his. She had the buffer of memory loss, he lived through it all and didn't have the liberty to forget the things that happened.
Anyway, the mind is a difficult thing.
So remember that picture I said I was entering in a Photo of the Month? if not go here . It was a tight race but in the end I took first place. So I am happy. I would really like to make something of this passion I have, but I am frustrated as to how to go about it. I seem to have a knack for photography and I do love it. I have managed to score a few weddings to photograph...but the well seems to have dried up in that area, and truthfully after watching Oxygen Channels (I think its O) series called Bridezilla...I am not so sure that this is the area I want to focus on. Great way to make money, but oy the headaches and heartaches that some of these wedding photogs go through. Pictures of special occasions are linked to such strong emotions, if you are not on the same page with the happy couple or the mother of the bride, it can be a disaster. So I keep searching and researching.
Today is the day before my daughters graduation. I think I am more excited then she is. My son and daughter-in-law will be here later today, but they are leaving to go back home on Saturday. Tomorrow night is the night I will see my friend (ex-friend?) and the good doctor for the first time in a long time. It is not bothering me as much as I thought it might. What happens happens and worrying or fretting over it will not change it.
1984
My daughter whirled into the house yesterday afternoon after the last of her finals insisting (demanding) I help her with a crossword puzzle that she had in hand. It had to be done by this morning in order for her boyfriend to graduate, err huh? Her bf is named Justin. Good kid, just a bit on the lazy procrastination side. Anyway, the puzzle was based on the novel 1984 - George Orwell. I read this novel back in my freshman english class (HS) as part of the required reading. I barely remembered the protagonists name. Winston something or other...oh yeah Smith. So there were a few words that were not filled in, Justin had managed to complete 75% of the puzzle, but he had several things he needed to do yesterday, and asked Ariceli if she would take a look and see if she could come up with the missing words. She couldn't so brought it home to me. Ordinarily I would have told her to go pound sand ( well not that rudely, but allude to the fact that I am not here to do her OR anyone else's homework) but it was a challenge to me and there were only 4 words left. I managed to get 2 more, but the last two left me stumped and scratching my head. I suspect that the teacher had given the answer somewhere in her lectures on the novel and you would have had to have been there AND listening to get them. One was "What is the mood set of the novel" This one really had me thinking, I recall a few different moods that the book seemed to convey, hopelessness, paranoia, anger, depressive etc. None of these fit however. The other question was "What does the Party not allow?" Well lots of things, privacy, records, diaries, history...None of these fit into the puzzle either.
So now I am thinking about returning to that novel and re-reading it. I might add Animal Farm as well. Oh! and then there was a reference to the book Watership Down that I read somewhere not long ago and thought I should re-read that one as well...
I think sometimes that these books, although they should be required reading in elementary and high school, they should also be required reading as adults.
Well this was a day of rambling, sorry, I know that it can be less then interesting when bloggers go on about the mundane things in their life.
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