A whole year?

Is there anything happier than a high school graduation?

Krista, Maren, Chloe. June 17, 2006.

Chloe and her brother, Christopher, a 2002 graduate.

World what?

What a great time to have unprecedented US media coverage of World Cup Soccer. Chloe's not overly interested in sports, but she was in Pamplona last year when Osasuna made it to the finals, which was a Very Big Deal on the streets of Pamplona. After they lost, one of Chloe's friends was sitting in the middle of the street, crying. Trying to comfort her, Chloe said they'd probably make it to the finals again another year: "No," she wailed, "they won't!" An international twist: the coach's son (they're Mexican and many people in Pamplona call the coach The Mexican) was in her class at San Cernin.

But this World Cup has a much different meaning for the kids who were exchange students all over the world last year. Chloe would have been on the ferry on the way to Anna Rae's house to watch the Spain-France game (Anna Rae lived in France last year), but the 11:25 ferry turned into the 1:00 ferry ("We apologize for any inconvenience"), so she was on the phone to her when Spain scored the first goal. Chloe might have rubbed it in a wee bit. I watched the last ten minutes of the game - Anna Rae gets bragging rights.

Bye bye, CC

November 5, 1991 - May 17, 2005

Missing the bad stuff

Nothing too tragic usually happens in our family. Few divorces, few serious illnesses, only two deaths of close family members during our kids' lifetimes (my dad and Steve's mom, and Chloe was not born and then too young to remember those). Until Chloe left. And then the floodgates opened. First, a step-grandfather, then a great grandmother, then a great aunt (that sounds so old - she was only 60). Now Chloe's aunt's mother has received a grim diagnosis. There are other assorted peripheral relatives with newly diagnosed cancer. Steve took our 12-year-old dog, the one named after both of the kids, in on Tuesday and now she's chasing balls on a happy farm in the sky. My brother's dog died unexpectedly. But those damn llamas are still here. If you'd like a couple of llamas and have room for them, let me know. No, they don't spit. Unless you get between them and their food.

Chloe is lucky because she wasn't here to be a part of all of this sadness. The relatives who have died were not a constant presence in her life and so her grief was more a vague sadness that someone had died than something that required the physical presence of friends and family for support. The dog is sad, but she knew CC wouldn't be here when she got back (we didn't think she'd be around when Chloe left).

But these experiences are part of life that she's missing so far. When tragedies happen later, will she have a harder time dealing with them? Or will she long for the year when she wasn't around and so didn't have to deal with them?

All of her will be back

When a loved one has been gone for a long time, either just living somewhere else or who has died, we tend to remember only the positive things. We miss her laugh or the jokes he used to tell. What we forget is the less than charming things about that person. I read a book by Virginia Graham, Life After Harry: My Adventures in Widowhood. She had a friend who went on and on about her dear, departed Frank: what a wonderful guy he was, how he always had a kind word for her, how he brought her flowers for no reason at all, and was just in general a kind, considerate husband. Finally, after weeks of hearing about Saint Frank, Virginia asked her oldest friend if she'd been married more than once. "Why, Virginia! You know Frank was the only man ever in my life! Why would you say such a thing?" "Because I've never met the guy you've been talking about."

Today I was IMing with Chloe and she said she feels like an old lady whose bobby pins pop out of her hair because her broom is flying too fast. She's been finding bobby pins all over the floor. Then she said she "got told" about not keeping her bedroom spotless (hair stuff again, and if you have Chloe's hair, you need mountains of all manner of hair stuff). The first thing that occurred to me was, "Oh, how I haven't missed that." I've written before about Chloe's lifelong habit of leaving Chloe detritus in her wake and, while I can't wait to see her again, that I could live without. Yeah, yeah: that's all part of why we love her. Right.

Graduation wheels

This is how we got there. Got around the $22 parking fee that way. That's Ann in the background, finishing her boxed breakfast.

Graduation 8

Maren, on the other hand, stayed awake and was rewarded with the discovery of a new favorite word: cum laude, to the chagrin of a couple of people around us. If you're thinking that looks like a baseball diamond in the background, you are right: graduation was at Safeco Field.

Graduation 7

And Quinn. It had been a late night for all of us. They both woke in time to see their father get hooded.

Graduation 6

Sarah, taking a snooze before they got to the Ps.

Graduation 5

Beats the heck out of waiting on the ferry dock.