I like gala. Braeburn sounds very classic apple, not sure I’ve knowingly had it, though. I think I’ve tried jazz because I like the name but I don’t remember what it tastes like, so meh sounds right.

I know very little a lot apples beyond Granny Smith yum/red delicious ick.

Off to Mexico! Taking my sis for a much needed birthday/new job celebration.

There's a hybrid that Aldi has right now that's pretty tasty -- I'll have to look at the bag later and report back on the name. Never heard of kanzi, but now I'll seek it out. DH and I saw something recently about hybrid apples, and now we keep an eye out to try different kinds. I love the apple tasting party idea!

Cereal: Brenda!! Have an absolute blast, and congrats again to your sister!

Dylan will be at Emerson in the fall, which I think is just about the right balance between "can come home for the weekend if he needs to" and "far enough away to have some real independence." And with my brother, my aunt, my uncle, and DH's aunt all living in the Boston metro area, he'll have plenty of local adults just in case something comes up where being local is more important than being a parent. (My mom keeps floating the idea of my parents moving up there too, but I'm not sure how serious she is.)

I'll have to look for kanzis!

Honeycrisps are my go-to apples, but I'm happy with anything that's not the misnomered red or golden delicious.

The Renaissance market Saturday was fun, though the only things we actually bought were from the BBQ food truck. It was really nice listening to the university's flute ensemble playing old instrumentals. And Mom found some handcrafted "protection charm" rings that she liked, alas all too large to fit her fingers.

I attended a film fest showing of The Fetch which was pretty good, although not set in Ireland as I'd originally assumed. The director said it's being distributed as The Twin in the latter part of the year.

I did not purchase red delicious, but surprisingly the golden delicious was actually pretty darn good! We were shocked. The sugarbee was the other shocker—it was the first one we tried and we all went “bleh, what is this bland nonsense”.

Cosmic Crisp is now my go-to apple, since I can no longer trust Fuji or Gala to be consistently good.

Congrats to Dylan on going to Emerson! Can't really beat Boston for college shenanigans.

Have fun in Mexico, brenda!

I am facing second Monday morning (9am) Pilates session and I like it as a kickstarter on the week. Dauntingly grey and foggy this a.m. though.

EM's coming over today. Haven't seen her since January when she wintered in Montana with her partner, Captain Wayno.

Initially I went as far and as fast as I could for college (after two years I transferred closer for a program I wanted - though I had already firmly split from my podunk town), but my mother hadn't just died. That's the sort of thing that can alter the launch sequence a bit. I'm trying to think if any of my friends lost a parent at that stage and what they did.

One friend already in college left for a planned summer job overseas immediately after his father died rather than stay home with his mother. My impression was that he'd have stayed home had his father lingered. That was just for the summer, however. Come September he was back at school and close to mom/home.

Another friend had already been accepted to a fairly far school when her father died in the summer and she left in the autumn... but it was her dream school and her relationship with her mother was always pretty tortured.

I feel like all my other friends who lost a parent young were in middle school so it had less of an immediate effect on that particularly life transition 4/5 years later.