While graduations celebrate accomplishment and achievement, they really should be about encouragement and looking ahead. This is certainly a time of reflection, but the future looks so bright at this point, it’s difficult not to be enthusiastic and optimistic. At least for me. I kind of like listening to the speakers and always hope that the graduates are taking their words to heart. I hope each one of them sees this event as not the end, but a beginning.

My favorite quote for graduates comes from Dr. Suess’ book “Oh the Places You’ll Go!”

You have brains in your head.
You have feet in your shoes
You can steer yourself
any direction you choose.
You’re on your own. And you know what you know.
And YOU are the guy who’ll decide where to go.

This one lasted a bit longer than usual and I was miserable.

The same thing happens with Diet Coke. I love it, but I feel better when I drink water instead. Each day I get up resolving not to drink it anymore, and before the day’s over, I’ve had at least one. (Either one can or 1 Large from fountain.) Ugh. I hate this.

But the good news is that I got up this morning with a fresh start. I’m always so amazed at how good I feel, just when I stop feeling terrible. (Does that make sense?) It’s like being in pain. If the pain eases even just a little bit, I always feel so much better immediately, even tough I’m still in some pain.

I have food issues. I always have… and if they were easy to fix, they would have been fixed by now. But I can always start over and try to make a different choice. That’s grace at it’s best.

I’ll let you know it’s going once in a while.

2 long hours.

My butt is still numb.

It was worth it, but I’m especially grateful it’s over.

I do not have a green thumb. And while it’s not rocket science to grow tomatoes, sometimes the elements work against me. But apparently not this year. I’ve been taking extra good care of these beauties. I missed out last year and I don’t want that to happen again.

It reminds me of the song from The Sound of Music…. “Some where in my youth, and childhood, I must have done something good.”

I can hardly wait.

I guess there is the exception of the Apple Store. Like I said yesterday… I even love the smell of that place.

Fortunately for me, Leroy relieves me of the chore of shopping most of the time. Alas, shopping is a necessary evil, even for me. As much as I hate shopping in stores, I love shopping online. I’d do everything online if I could. Most of the time I can’t justify the shipping costs. But more and more sites are offering free shipping with a minimum purchase. (Which I usually exceed.) My favorite online site is Amazon.com, but I even indulge in Walmart.com and their free shipping policy. (Actually, I’d pay shipping so I wouldn’t have to walk into a Walmart.)

Now it sounds silly to be thankful for online shipping and free shipping, but THRIVE on efficiency. I love to find ways to be more efficient and to save time. I’ve got much better things to do than to buy flea medicine at Walmart.

So my friend decided to buy the iPad. When she pulls out her credit card, the Apple employee did a double take. On her card, she has a picture of herself from a hunting trip. In the shot, she’s kneeling beside her kill which is a HUGE African animal of some sort. (Giselle or Antelope… something like that… I don’t know.) When she asked him if he wanted to see her drivers’ license, the employee said yes… but he was still in shock. He asked her, “Is that you?” And she quietly replied, “yes.” He looked her straight in the eye and told her he was going to be much nicer to her from now on. I looked at him and said, “She’s kind of a bad ass.”

Now… to truly appreciate this story, you must realize that my friend is 80 years old. And that hunting trip to Africa wasn’t too long ago. This lady has it going on. She’s one sharp cookie and I love spending time with her. It’s always a pleasure. I hope to have my stuff together half as well as she does by the time I reach her age. She’s truly inspirational. I am truly blessed to call her my friend.

The dogs never let me sleep past 6:00 am. If my alarm doesn’t go off before, Charlie will stare at me until I wake up. If that doesn’t work, Daisy will whine. That’s my clue to get up, let them go potty and feed them breakfast. But this morning, they were still at the Lemos’. Since we were gone all day yesterday, I took the dogs over to there on Friday afternoon. I didn’t wake up this morning until 8:00 am. And even the, I was able to just lay in bed, drink some coffee and read the paper.

They’re home now and everything is as it should be. All of my “kids” are under my roof and there is no better feeling in the world. But I know that I’ll be up by 6:00 am tomorrow… and I guess it’s good that the dogs are here to keep me on task.

This morning we left the house at 5:00 am and traveled to Chico for Jared’s (Sierra’s boyfriend) graduation. From there we went to Oakdale for a friend of ours that recently graduated from UC Berkeley. (We missed one high school/Jr. High party too.) We got home about 9:30 and we’re pretty tired.

As daunting as it is to keep up with this schedule, I feel privileged to be included. I particularly enjoy going to the college graduation parties. Many of these kids we haven’t seen for a while… and I’m always so impressed with their accomplishment.

This is what happens when we make education a priority. These are the fruits of the encouragement we’ve offered through out the years. Even though the schedule is grueling… I’m honored to be included and I will make every effort to attend each and every one.

I don’t spend a lot on personal maintenance (obviously) but I do like to splurge on a pedicure in the summer. (Well, that and my extensive make-up collection.) The funny thing is the fact that I HATE getting a pedicure. I only endure the torture because my toes look so much better in the end. No matter how hard I try, I cannot come close to making them look decent on my own. I do spend a little extra and get the Shellac pedicure so I only have to go about once a month and the color doesn’t wear off when I wear real shoes.

Pedicures are not enjoyable… but pretty feet are so I can justify the time and expense. It’s a little piece of momentary happiness every time I look down. If it makes me happy, it’s has to be grace.