Retirement Age

Shawn and I just attended the retirement lunch for one of his coworkers, Cathy, who was once one of my coworkers. I knew her before I knew Shawn, actually. She seemed "older" at that time, but she was probably around my current age, maybe a few years younger. HA! (She threw us a little co-ed wedding shower, actually, at Manuel's in our old neighborhood. Remember, honey?) He and I have 15 & 20 years to go,  respectively, but it's weird to think that we're at the age now where we're learning how to give good retirement parties. Not bachelorette parties or wedding showers, or even good kid birthday parties: retirement parties. 

It was odd to go out to lunch at all, to be honest. I go out once a week-ish, with my current favorite cowrker, but I remember the days when going out to lunch was a nearly-every-day thing. Sometimes, a group of us (including this friend who's retiring) went to our favorite restaurant twice in the same week. Frequently. Oh, Sundown Tacos, how I miss you. Paying for a full lunch twice in one week is pretty unfathomable to me now. Particularly since I work from home, but even if I didn't... I just can't see allowing myself to spend money like that, all willy-nilly! TWICE?! That's just crazy talk.

Anyway, we're old, get off my lawn, the end.

Well, not really the end, I guess: this WEEK will never end. It's only THURSDAY gahhhhhhhh. And directly following this week is a super-long weekend of full days with both band and volleyball. TIME OF OUR LIVES, TIME OF OUR LIVES, I keep telling myself, and there IS an element of fun energy to it, that if you can put blinders to the logistics, is truly THE BEST. Last weekend, for example: volleyball games were won! Kate was playing well and happy! Volleyball moms are sweet and fun to hang out with! Walking to lunch on a gorgeous 70-degree day! Dinner with (other) friends! Then an AMAZING concert at a beautiful concert hall, with Alex playing the star-highlighted clarinet part! I mean, my heart could not have been more full. I just had to not think about 1) handling all the things on the calendar at once and 2) DRIVING all over creation. 

It's really true what I was told as a young mother, though, crying over having to work full-time and put my kids in daycare: They actually need you MORE when they're older. It was so hard for me to fathom that then, but now I see it. While our teens don't necessarily want us around them all the time, they need us more, a) to drive them when they aren't old enough yet, and b) just to be the assuring support behind their big activities. To BE THERE. Presence. It lays that foundation for them, and lets them be themselves and do their things and become who they're meant to become. 

So thanks, Marybeth, for that sound advice so long ago. 

My sugar detox went fairly well, if you consider having one small piece of dark chocolate at the end of day 2, and one peanut butter energy ball w/chocolate chips during day 3, a success. And I do. It's much better than a day with 2 quick cookies, then an energy ball, then a piece of dark chocolate, and maybe one more cookie a little later. I am my father's daughter. I think even a 3-day fast from sugar was difficult, though (clearly). Maybe I should do one day off, one day on. Still thinking on it.

I'm also trying to eat more salads as meals. It's just that it's kind-of a pain to make them. But worth it, really, and maybe with summer almost here, I'll feel more like salads. Maybe I'll try new vegetables (radishes? endive? more cabbage?) and allow a little bit of good cheese (FETA, droooool). Make some yummy vinaigrettes. Does it sound like I'm trying to convince myself? Because I am.

Hey guess what else? It's time for me to buy dresses for GRADUATIONS. My own kids' graduations, not just "the season of." This whoooooole post is connected now -- getting old... eating salads... fitting into new, pretty dresses, graduating kids!

Sugar Detox

"Sugar Detox" is written is big letters across today, tomorrow and Friday on my planner. After yesterday, I need one. Well, I have needed one much longer than that, but yesterday was just the final straw in feeling discouraged with myself about how much sugar I can consume in a day. It's Phil's fault. 

My coworker, Phil, from the UK, surprised me by being in my office yesterday when I got to work! I am still trying to only go to the office one or two days a week -- in fact, this week, my boss told employees that with the cost of gas rising so much, we are all welcome to work from home again as much as we like (he's so good about this stuff since Covid) -- and Tuesday is my day. I don't work with Phil on a daily basis anymore, so I had no idea about his travel schedule. What fun to see a friendly face from so far away when I arrived! 

Phil always brings treats from Great Britain. Yesterday they included some good shortbread, which I cannot resist. But I had already treated myself to a Pop Tart, because I needed an "on the go" breakfast! And then he held out the tin of shortbread (it's a tin because it's British), instead of quietly just placing his gift in the break room. What else could I have done but take one as he stood there? No polite way out of that, and because shortbread is SO delicious I found another small piece of it later in the day after he DID take it to the break room. I felt called after that, to learn how to make shortbread at home. Buttery and sugary and that crumbly TEXTURE?! Heaven help me. But I also kept hearing the word "diabetes" in my head, Wilford Brimley style, and therefore: Sugar Detox. 

Over the past weekend I also made some treats, myself, at home. I was thinking of Toll House original chocolate chip cookies, but those take some time and dirty so many dishes. So I went with a 3-ingredient recipe for "Super Rich Cookie Bars" instead (it's 1.33 cups of graham cracker crumbs, a can of condensed milk, and 1.5 cups of chocolate chips, bake at 350 for 30 minutes). And I've eaten at least 4 of them. You have to cut them small because they're so rich, so it seems like a reasonably tiny treat... until you eat 4. ANYWAY. I also made "protein energy balls," which have healthy old fashioned oats and coconut and peanut butter in them, but are really a no-bake cookie (also chocolate chips and honey, lol). 

And in general I like something sweet after a meal. A square of dark chocolate or some dried cranberries. 

It's just too much sugar. So the rest of this week I am going to be drinking lots of water, and will attempt to have sugar-free gum at the ready after meals. I'm not aiming to never eat sugar again, just need to put a hard stop to it for a bit. Clear my cache, so to speak. (Clear my cookies is more like it!) I sincerely wish I could "lose my taste" for sweet things in 3 days, but we all know that isn't gonna happen. Wish me luck.

College Nostalgia and Impressions After a Weekend at UGA

It's really interesting, I think, that a person's college experience can shape so much of who they become. I really believe that. For myself, I truly found myself as a chorister/musician; I found a group of friends that I still see, however infrequently, to this day; and I got an internship my senior year which led to a full-time job which is where I met Shawn. So it's a monumental thing, and I guess it's why I've been so thinky (and maybe naggy) about it for Alex. It's important! It's the launching pad for your life trajectory. 

Our weekend in Athens was excellent, starting with a perfectly-timed campus tour. Once he got the acceptance letter, I quickly got online and lo and behold, there was an available tour the day we were planning to arrive for All-State. His rehearsal didn't start until 6:45, and the tour was at 2:30. Divine intervention. I signed us up. It was neat when the enthusiastic guide started his welcome speech with, "I hear we have some new admits here today..." and knowing he meant my kid. 

We liked the campus and I was glad it wasn't as overwhelming/large as I'd imagined it to be. Very manageable. We lucked out with a beautiful spring day. (Short-sleeves and I wish I had worn open-toed shoes, it was that warm. God bless Georgia sometimes.) Nothing like a college campus when the weather's good, fall or spring! We took pictures in all the iconic spots, bought Alex an official 2022 National Champions (football, in case you aren't a college football fan) t-shirt in the bookstore, and ate some dinner in the student center. I want to remember this, also: One of his favorite things about the student center was a gaming room. Ha! We walked past it several times and saw kids hanging out in there; I think it was eye-opening, that they had their own place, right there in the middle of everything. 

I tried not to explain things so much that I annoyed him, but it was fun to talk to him about getting around campus, scheduling classes, best places to study (for me it was a Theology library; at UGA it's apparently the Law Library), RAs, roommates, and free food events. ;) He was asking good questions. I told him college is really the only time in your life when everything/anything is available to you. You're on your own, don't have to ask permission (in most cases), and you can just sample things you're curious about. 

I remember, for instance, renting a tent/sleeping bag from the rec center at Emory and going on a camping weekend (tour guides love to tell you this is possible, at every campus). We would go to the A/V library on Friday nights when we lived on campus, to watch a movie for FREE. I volunteered/ushered at the campus theater. I had interesting little jobs at a residence hall desk and later at the same A/V library. You could go to basketball games for FREE. (I mean, free with your tuition, lol.) Workout at a gym for FREE -- I'd never done that before. Join an intramural softball team just for fun. Go hear a lecture by a random author. I planned pizza parties for after Sunday night Mass. Music students knew that we could get very cheap tickets to the Atlanta Symphony, and we had to, for credit in our classes; I never have gone to the symphony as much as I did while in college. There's just SO MUCH available. (And we didn't even have a football team, much less a championship one!)  

So, the real reason we were there was the All-State band concert that Alex auditioned for and made. During the rehearsals on Friday, I was able to see one of my college besties and his family, who were there for their daughter's All-State concert as well. So that made me even MORE nostalgic.  

Sadly, we were disappointed with news from Ga Tech while there -- we held our breath and looked together at the expected email, and... he was not admitted. But, as my sister Jill pointed out, what better place to receive that news? We were having fun at UGA, who needs Tech?! I think that made it easier for Alex. For sure makes the decision process easier! 

I don't know that he feels CERTAIN about it, in the way that you just KNOW about some things; but he was definitely in a state of, "I could be happy here." And you know that makes me happy. :)