Out One Door and In The Next

I don’t post a lot about my personal life. If your personal life is so bad you feel the need to read about mine, then what you really need is professional help. This week was an exception. Reportable things happened so quickly I didn’t have time to post it in bite-sized chunks, so you’re getting it in one, big, undigested glob.

The Sole Heir graduated high school on Monday. On Saturday afternoon I was accompanied by the Beloved Spousal Equivalent and both parental correspondents to L’Estate du Sole Heir for party set-up duties and a cook-out. It had rained every day for the previous week, but the Sole Heir’s charmed life kicked in on our way over and the weather was perfect once we got there.

Sunday was more of the same. People of a certain age—mine—took care not to get too much sun, but all else was perfect. About eighty-five people moved through the house and back yard during the course of the day. The noon start allowed The Sole Heir to get a monopoly on many of her friends before they had to start making the rounds. About fifteen gathered in the shade near the bottom of the yard for over an hour to reminisce and make plans they already know they won’t keep.

The graduation went without a hitch, except for getting into and out of Constitution Hall. Those not from around here should be aware that DC area high schools do not have graduation ceremonies at the school. They all use larger, more commercial venues such as Constitution Hall, the Verizon Center, or the University of Maryland’s Comcast Center. Constitution Hall lends gravitas to the ceremony and is large enough for everyone to get in, but parking and traffic in downtown late Monday morning is a crisis. Add to that movie trucks on the streets north and south of the building and half a dozen tour buses parked right up against it, and searching for a particular kid among the crowd was like looking for a clear marble in a pile of whites.

Lunch was across the street from the Treasury Building, at the Old Ebbitt Grill, where the politically elite meet to eat. Plenty to eat, all of it good, and it only cost a hand and a foot, as opposed to the expected arm and a leg.

A hectic three days. Tuesday was back to work at [agency name redacted] for a couple of days of relative sanity, before freshman orientation at the University of Maryland. Get there before nine, stay till after six (TSH stayed the night in a dorm), and learn all you need to know to feel comfortable about sending your kid to a major university. The presentations and handouts were such that the parents were never bored, and left as well-informed as could be imagined. The kids went off on their own to do some pre-registration stuff; actual registration is today.

That was our week. The Sole Heir woke up Monday morning a high school girl; she ate lunch on Friday as a young woman in college. I handled it much better than expected. Only teared up once at the ceremony. The memories I thought would break me up were there, but superseded by watching her enjoyment at all aspects of the week. She’s ready to make the next step. Though I’ll miss having her around as much as I have in the past, I can’t wait to see what she does next. Whatever it is, it’s going to be a lot of fun to watch, and to participate in as much as she needs.