Rachel Graduates

Rachel’s high school graduation has kept me away from the keyboard this week and I’ve only just now managed to find the time to upload the pictures we took over at Facebook for the family to share. She still has some school days left to go – a quirk in the ceremony schedules meant that her ceremony was this past Tuesday but her actual last day of school won’t be until this Tuesday.

We’re so very proud of Rachel and more than a little sad. Yeah, yeah, it seems like yesterday and all that stuff but you know what? It’s true. It does seem like yesterday that she marched her way into her kindergarten classroom on that Fall day 13 years ago and started her school career. There’ve been a lot of ups and downs since then but, man, have those years have simply flown by. Well, it’s the way of the world and that’s the way things are supposed to be – she’s been growing up and away from us ever since she was able to toddle around on her own. One thing has remained constant over the years: the blessings she’s brought us have never ended. Never. We don’t know yet what her next adventure will be but we know it’ll be an interesting one. And we’ll be standing by to give her all the love and support she’ll need and more than she probably realizes.

So, here’s to Rachel.

Rachel’s Choir Performance at Westmoore’s Evening With the Arts

Rachel’s in the final weeks of her high school career and this is her next to last choir performance. Next week is the big choir finale and I hope to have something from that as well so expect some more dimly lit, blurry still pictures and some poorly edited, shaky video with lousy sound. You know, the usual stuff you’ve come to expect from me.

Clara was out of town this week and Emily was at home a’wrasslin‘ with her upper respiratory infection so it was just Grandma and Grandpa and me to handle the rabid fan chores.

Here’ Grandma and Grandpa, ever-faithful and always early:

The auditorium soon filled up but not to the rafters like a normal recital; since this was an arts appreciation night, there were 5 other venues going on at the same time so the halls were filled with proud parents and bored siblings. But soon, Rachel and the choir took the stage and performed their competition numbers:

Where’s Rachel? Second row, second from left, her face blocked by the dark-haired beauty in front of her. See her now? Yeah. One thing that’s been consistent throughout the years, no matter what seats we get, the view of Rachel is always obscured. Always. Sigh.

Here’s another view? Better? No? Well, it’ll have to do. I didn’t take a lot of still pictures because of the lighting and I was working the video camera, too. I’m only one person, people.

Did I say video camera? So I’ve got video to post? Well, yes but not from the camera. You’ll recall I’ve had trouble converting the Sony files to WAV files that I can upload to YouTube. Also, I’m all thumbs with the free Windows editing software so I can pare down the clips to YouTube’s draconion limits. But the still camera has a video mode and it does a not-bad job of things and and all I have to do is upload the file directly to YouTube. Why can’t all things be that simple?

You get the idea. (I’m working on the camcorder video and may post that later. Check back often.)

Grandma and Grandpa and I spent the time before the show and between performances reminiscing about all of the times we’ve spent out in the audience and how those times are coming to a swift close. Oh, sure, there’ll be plenty of times ahead for Emily but this, well, this is different. Now may not be the time to get all misty-eyed about how fast time goes by – the thing to do is to enjoy the time at hand, right? – but, oh my, doesn’t the time pass so swiftly?

Moore War 2009

The big football rivalry was markedly different from last year: Rachel’s decided to not participate in Color Guard this year so she wasn’t a part of the game. Instead, she and her buddy went on their own and Emily and her posse did their own thing. No role for meddling parents. Which was fine. All part of growing up and all that, right?

Oh, we weren’t entirely left out in the cold. Emily and her crew did need someone to take them and drop them off and then, later, pick them up and bring them home. Which we did. A nice dinner at Freddy’s in Moore and then on over to the festivities. Roving packs of youth dressed in their football rivalry finest on a pleasant September evening. The days are seldom better than that.

I had the pick-up-after-the-game duty and when I got the call, er, text, I headed out. A Fifth Dimension CD in the Sequoia stereo, a full moon sailing through the sky filling fields with pale blue light, the steady jabbering of five 13 year old girls in the back – well, maybe you get the picture. This time won’t come again so I’d better enjoy it while I can.

And I did. After everyone was dropped off and it was only Emily and I and the Fifth Dimension celebrating the Age of Aquarius, I asked her if she’d had a good time. She did. So that was enough for me.

As for Rachel, she declared her time good as well when she breezed in moments before curfew. That’ll be about all we’ll be privy to in her life but details will slowly emerge as the days go by. This will be her last big high school football game; if she attends in the future, she’ll be only a visitor to her glory days and not a participant. She doesn’t realize this now, of course, but I hope she looks back on this as the best of times.