Friday Night List

1.  Kid #2's graduation was so moving that I started sobbing during the tributes teachers gave to other kids--kids I have no attachment to.  I was sitting her thinking how important it was to hear their teachers laud them in these really specific and thoughtful ways.  One kid, Joey, had tears streaming down his cheeks while listening to his tribute.  All of the kids were so beautiful.  Today's event made me realize again that kids are the best species of humans on the planet. 

2.  Last night while walking into a local bar/cafe to hear live music, I missed the initial step-down step and fell swiftly forward into the bodies at the bar.  My fall even affected some young women at an adjacent table.  My fall caused drink spillage and glass breakage.  It was incredibly mortifying.  I stood there for awhile in my wreckage trying to safe face by being wry and self-ironizing, and also offering to pay for all the damage I did.

3.  This fall came just after I'd been thinking about my mother who was recently diagnosed with "severe Asperger's."  I am not surprised by this diagnosis.  It explains my entire life.  But I was wondering if I fell so egregiously in some sort of dramatic, sympathetic tribute to her.  One of the symptoms of Asperger's is physical clumsiness. 

4.  Kid #2 decided to stay at the school with her teachers after her graduation and reception on tar beach.  Only my kid and one other kid decided to stay.  So the teachers had them help dismantle the room and them took them out for smoothies.  Sometimes being an elementary-school teacher seems like the coolest job ever.

5.  After Kid #2's graduation dinner, we ran into the Drag March, which is the annual kick-off to Pride Week.