Technically, Matilda's school year ends on Weds, June 2nd. But for all practical purposes yesterday was the last day as she took her Algebra 2 test and turned in her creative writing assignment for English class (a 20 page science fiction story involving memory erasure and an older brother/younger sister sibling dynamic. Read into that what you will).

Thus ends the great experiment of online school encompassing the last quarter of her final Middle School year, and her entire Freshman year of High School.

To her credit, Matilda has stayed on top of her work, pulled down good grades, made friends at her new school, turned on her Zoom camera (unlike most of her classmates) and formed good relationships with all of her teachers. She has something affectionate to say about each of them.

All this while being almost completely isolated from her oldest, closest friends, at a HS where she didn't know anybody, with no arts programming this year, and no team sports (after having soccer or softball from 1st grade through 8th) while fighting her way up out of a pretty severe depression that lasted almost 9 months.

Kudos to her resilience.

On top of all that, she's got almost a completely different body than she had in Middle School. She's grown four inches, and is only half a finger's breadth shorter than JZ. She's got all the hormonal gifts of puberty with breasts, and a butt and acne. Her braces are off. She's got a complicated skincare regimen and serious winged eyeliner skills.

One more anxious hurdle to get over with her wisdom teeth on June 11th, and then...the summer is lined up. She's bringing her bestie, Mia, up to Reno with Jacqueline as they stay with JZ's mom for a week. Starting July 1 she begins work as a camp counselor, and that runs all the way to the beginning of her school year in mid-August, where [knock wood] she will be on campus for the first time.

The job will get her out of the house every day, doing something physical, looking after kids, hanging with other counselors, pays very well (SF minimum wage is $17/hr), but it's only 4 hours a day so she'll still have plenty of time to socialize (and money to spend).

All of her friends will be vaxxed, and she can hang out with Mia (who she knows from camp), and Iris (the one previous school friend that she's seen this year). New school friends MI and Ruby, who share her love of anime and manga. New friends from her jewelry class who live in the neighborhood, Willow and Ryon.

After 14 months she'll be able to see her friends, under her own power, without parental scheduling. I'm not sure what qualifies as Normal anymore, but that definitely qualifies as Good.

What a fucking year+.

Jim and I are off to see Bev and her good spouse!

Oh, I am so jealous. May there be many hugs.

I went to an actual party tonight! And it was wonderful.

Yay socializing! Sorry about Mozzie. Skinner isn't used to any alone time either and it is a challenge for all of us.

She loves water but hasn't been swimming yet. The only problems will be getting her to leave, and getting her clean.

That is the challenge when we take Skinner to the dog beach, but he is sooooo happy.

Kudos to her resilience.

What a fucking year+.

Indeed. As difficult as the past year has been I know that it would have been so much harder with children, or for the teachers. It was a lot.

I don't know how many of my doctors will choose to retire this summer. Several are talking about it. They are completely emotionally depleted.

Today is house and work chores. Tomorrow a BBQ at the neighbors house where Bobby was married. It will be odd seeing him since he hasn't bothered to check on me at all, no visit, no call, no text since he has known I was having serious health challenges. His brother said he is just going through stuff and it will return to normal. I expect he is right. Monday the guys come over for billiards. I bought ribs, wings, mahi, and tuna. I'll just make a big salad and put out all the meat stuffs. What doesn't get consumed will be lunches for the next days.

Also, I have tons of roses from previous years bushes and a lot more DH planted this year. It is quite lovely in the yard.

Timelies all!

Last night Mr. S just would not go to sleep. He was still up at midnight. Didn't stop him from getting up around 7:30 this morning. It's been raining most of the day, so you can imagine how much fun today's been,

Matildas summer sounds pretty awesome! Go her!

Casper and her friend are trying to friend-match us with the parents; they say we are both quiet nerdy couples who need more friends.

That is both adorable and hilarious. Hope you enjoy them.

I woke up and realized I was out of milk. So had to put clothes on to go get coffee or milk. Decided to hit Trader Joe’s and rectify the milk situation only to realize id left my wallet at home. Ugh.

Also, I haven’t read a paper book in forever, and realized yesterday I kinda DO need reading glasses, it’s just that I’ve been able to adjust font sizes on my iPad/kindle/phone!! Ageing is stupid.

Also also: where the heck is my debit card? I used it a few days ago at the store. Nobody else has used it since. But it's not in my phone case where I usually keep it. And I can't find it in any of my jacket or pants pockets. I put a pause on it online, and will get a new one if I have to, but I suspect it's just hiding in my house somewhere...

For the first time, my bread has failed to rise. Completely. I'm giving it another hour, but we may be eating very dense bread later.

Glad to hear of Matilda's return to seeing her friends, and, yeah, sounds like an excellent summer ahead. All good.

Hope it turns up, meara. I hate that kind of shit.

Had a totally relaxing afternoon. Did the crossword, and then we went to lunch at Jimmy's Old Town Tavern, which lived up to its name. Very much full of regulars. We sat in the room where the poker tournament was going on, as you do. A women's biking (motor) group was chatting in the bathroom. I had fish and chips in defiance of my gf life. Came home, napped, went out for ice cream, and now we're watching a movie. I anticipate an early bed time. Is good.

Hope it turns up, meara. I hate that kind of shit.

Conversely, I found a woman's wallet on the street and was able to track her down and call her today. So she is very happy to be getting it back.

I was able to find a lot of stuff off her driver's license, but couldn't get past pay sites to get her phone number. So, I played my ace in the hole - one of my Kenyon friends is a private detective and I had her look up the phone number. Which she tracked down and an email in about three minutes.

It is baffling to me when people do not carry emergency contact info in their wallets alongside their IDs.

Even my phone and iPad have “If found....” info on the lock screens.

t is baffling to me when people do not carry emergency contact info in their wallets alongside their IDs.

Well her wallet was "Pure Hemp - Made in Nepal" so she might not exactly be the emergency contact forethinking type.