So we got home Monday night and flew out again Thursday morning and home again tonight. Richard’s graduation and then Michelle’s, with the help of some very antique frequent flier miles.
I so wanted to stop by Diana’s on our way to the airport, but we had made it Thursday morning by three minutes before they started boarding, and snow–*snow*!–was predicted in Michigan; Richard didn’t want to risk the time, not with all the people who might be cramming the airport with the graduation festivities all ending and the possible road hazards with the weather and returning the rental car. And all that.
Michelle’s roommate had her mom staying with them and so Michelle’s friend Melissa offered sight unseen to put us up for the two nights; all the hotels around had been booked for that weekend for months, we were told. So a big shout-out to Melissa for her kindness; she’s such a good soul, and her grandpa she takes care of is a love, too. Apple. Tree. Yes. And Grandpa loves his birdfeeder.
It was so good to see our daughter in her own environment. To see where–well, everything, and quite a few really good people. To meet her peach of a roommate.
We did stop by Friday night at Lisa and Mike’s, the friends whose daughter Tara is the namesake of my redwood-burl-pattern shawl. (Holy cow. $899 for a new copy on Amazon tonight? Hey, y’all, go to Purlescence; they’ve got it in stock at cover.)
I asked their youngest, now in high school, the only one not born in California, if he remembered meeting us when he was little. How I picked him up and twirled him around and around, arms to outstretched arms, spinning, spinning till we both fell down and his oldest brother David exclaiming, NOW you’ve had the Sister Hyde experience!
Nope, he shook his head a bit bashfully, don’t remember that.
That’s okay, you were pretty little.
Today, our GPS tried to route us straight through campus to get to the airport. As if! We turned left instead and made it tell us how to get to the highway going around all the other celebrants.
New adventures and new places to come. Our children have the whole world open to them.