The Party's Over

Keith's graduation party is now pictures in the memory book. All the cleaning, cooking, planning, and worrying is done. It went off without a hitch. Well, almost.

It rained a little. Twice. The tent post punctured the sprinkler system (again - it happened at Joe's party too). The new screened gazebo that we used for the food tent was broken and had to be rigged to stay up. The industrial fan we brought home from the shop to keep the 89 degree/90 % humid air circulating killed a 2 foot wide circle of grass (oil or solvents or something).

But it's been a week now, and Greg and I are finally able to move without significant pain, the house is ours again, and most of the leftovers are gone. Keith is thrilled with his monetary gain but dreading the Thank You notes. The broken gazebo has been returned and replaced. The grass is growing back.

Now we get to go to other kids grad parties, take a check in a card, look at thier pictures and tropheys, eat some food and then say goodby. That's the fun part. That and commisserating with the parents of the grad and telling them that "this too shall pass". Unless, of course there is another kid(s). This was our last. When they graduate from college, they can take us out to dinner.

11 Rules For The Real World

The American Education System. These are some things that just are not taught in schools and should be. If your kid is about to step into the real world, better make him/her read this.

Rule 1: Life is not fair - get used to it!

Rule 2: The world won't care about your self-esteem. The world will expect you to accomplish something BEFORE you feel good about yourself.

Rule 3: You will NOT make $60,000 a year right out of high school. You won't be a vice-president with a carphone until you earn both.

Rule 4: If you think your teacher is tough, wait till you get a boss.

Rule 5: Flipping burgers is not beneath your dignity. Your Grandparents had a different word for burger-flipping: they called it opportunity.

Rule 6: If you mess up, it's not your parents' fault, so don't whine about your mistakes, learn from them.

Rule 7: Before you were born, your parents weren't as boring as they are now. They got that way from paying your bills, cleaning your clothes and listening to you talk about how cool you thought you were. So before you save the rain forest from the parasites of your parent's generation, try delousing the closet in yourown room.

Rule 8: Your school may have done away with winners and losers, but life HAS NOT. In some schools, they have abolished failing grades and they'll give you as MANY TIMES as you want to get the right answer. This doesn't bear the slightest resemblance to ANYTHING in real life.

Rule 9: Life is not divided into semesters. You don't get summers off and very few employers are interested in helping you FIND YOURSELF. Do that on your own time.

Rule 10: Television is NOT real life. In real life people actually have to leave the coffee shop and go to jobs.

Rule 11: Be nice to nerds. Chances are you'll end up working for one.

Don't even need a thought for the day with this one! Pass it on!