Tuesday, June 29, 2010

"Grampa, were you on the honor roll in High School?"

Today was a bonus day with our SGrandson, his other grampa was not feeling well enough to stay with him today, so we picked him up for a few hours. SHusband was feeling a little stronger today. Did you hear me? SHUSBAND WAS FELLING A LITTLE STRONGER TODAY. Maybe this is for a day a week or whatever time frame, but it is important. So, I jumped on the opportunity to whine about him being overdue by a month for a haircut, and while we were out, we could use one of our many restaurant gift cards for "date-lunch" which we received for Christmas.
He got a wonderful haircut by a young girl that probably was, what is the minimum age to graduate from beauty school and drive? OK, way young. Good for her to be so skilled at the beginning of her working life.
I digress.
So listen, the world's most handsome man got a great haircut. We went to lunch-thank goodness for gift cards, do you know we paid $2.99 for a CUP of soup for SGS to go with his salad with chicken bits? $2.99 is enough to make a POT of very tasty soup.
On the drive home, SGS says to his grampa "Grampa, were you on the honor roll in High School?". Grampa was very honest-as always, I love that about him, but really sometimes honest when you would like a little fib-you know what I mean ladies, "Yes, that blouse is tight", "No I think my sister cooked this better". It is my fault for asking when I know the answer, but hey, worth a try!
Grampa replies, I was on it a few times, but not always-this was a surprise to me since he is such a brainy guy. He explained that he did very well on the subjects which he liked, and the others- not so much attention was paid by him.
The SGD asks "Grampa, were you class president?" He so admires his grampa that he just assumes he must have been one of the big shots in his class. Grampa said no. I am now wondering out loud "is anyone interested in my High School Years?" So SH tells SGS to ask me, which he did. I answered that I was on the honor roll a few times in my senior year, but mainly tried my last two years to try to stay on the merit roll (85-90) or better. I thought I was finished with questions-I should never have offered any info. He then wanted to know if I was class president, and I said no, I was nothing, not very popular because I was fat. It is OK to be fat in grammar school, your friends are your friends, but in High School, your good friends turn out to be not such good friends because it was not good to be fat or to be seen with fat people-it might be contagious. The rest I didn't tell him, the heartbreak of my freshman year when people I was so close to-boys and girls did everything to pretend that I did not exist. A real abandonment, and a question to myself-what kind of person can not even pick true friends? The girls were all asked into sororities (A BIG DEAL), but not me, they all set together at lunch, but not me. I already had a crappy self-worth issue, but to have so many validations of this opinion was very difficult for a young girl. I did not do well in school, and tried not to hear the moo and oink sounds as I walked down the hall. In my sophomore year, I fell in with some other outcasts, some very smart, some very nice, some who were just passing through school as quickly as possible. I had an older brother at the same school, he was popular, and fellow students in my group were surprised he was my brother-shocked even. Sometimes his friends would say a quick hi to me in the halls-I think to avoid me telling my brother that they ignored me-but since he did for the most part too, it really didn't matter what they did.
In my last two years, I knew it was up to me to make what I could of my life, so I tried to be a better student, and at the same time, some very nice teachers recognized my abilities and encouraged me. Thank you to them, and to SSister#1 who would not let me become a secretary, which I thought would be ok. No, she made me go for something better that would use my abilities. She always was my greatest cheerleader. I went into a technical field and worked at it for 33 years. The workplace did not categorize people-they only cared if you did the job and did it well.
So no, I was nothing in High School, but I know everyday that I am somebody today. God Bless all those who take the time to nurture others.

Sunday, June 20, 2010

A picture is worth........

Wanna see some pictures?



















































There, now I am caught up.

No shoes left to drop....

I know, it is a dangerous thing to say, no shoes left to drop meaning end of catastrophes. But listen, I think any new things are serendipitous, not connected to this last rush of madness.

So, on with life!!!!!!!!
I remember I laughed wildly while driving one time because I looked over at my SMother in the car who had slipped a pair of sunglasses on over her regular glasses. I thought it was the oddest thing I had seen in some time, and here I am doing the same thing! Genetics got me again!