Awards

Last night we went to WF for two big events. The first was Toby's mom turning 84. We had a bit of ice cream cake and visited with her and his sisters. Jesse joined us wearing a little black dress and looking drop dead gorgeous. The next event was a banquet honoring honor students at MSU. Jesse was the Art Department's honoree - hence the black dress.

The banquet was the usual huge room with lots of round tables full of people who don't know each other. The food was less than wonderful and the seats were hard on my sore bottom and leg. But it was worth it to be there and see Jesse get awarded for her hard work.  The other people at our table were the Accounting Honoree and her parents along with her professor and her husband. Jesse's professor had to sit at another table because there was no room for the four of us all together. Anyway, our table of folks were fun. The accounting honoree was very lovely and her dad very friendly and funny making the evening enjoyable.

As each person walked across the stage to receive their award, the emcee read out a list of accomplishments. Some of the lists were quite lengthy. Jesse laughed and said, "They asked me to write a resume, but I did not know what it was for." That is so Jesse - kind of an oblivion - and yet she could care less laughing at it. We laughed a lot - as usual. Quite enjoyable.

It was pretty obvious that many of these kids had planned and worked for these awards. Toby made the observation that when we went to college, our parents were not particularly helpful in sharing insights to college life. But more and more kids have parents who went to college - making them more competitive for such awards. Although both Toby and I are college grads, I'm not sure we were aware of such awards and therefore had no competitive spirit. We just urged our children to do good. Being homeschooled kids, they were use to studying and reading on their own. Bo graduated with honors and Jesse will too, although even that was not required or pushed for by us. I'm quite proud of her GPA, but I'm just as proud of her laughing, caring, fun  spirit.

Since MSU is my alma mater, lots of memories came flooding back while sitting in the same coliseum where I graduated.  Toby's memory was that at my graduation he was holding an eleven month old Jesse throughout the ceremony. By the time it was over, she had peed all over him and he was ready to go as soon as the ceremony was over. At my graduation I remember the guy sitting next to me saying, "See that guy over there? He graduated summa cum laude. And that guy over there graduated magna cum laude. And you and I graduated thank the laude."

Just so you know where Jesse and Bo got their smarts:  Toby and I got married in the summer of 77 and went back to Texas Tech - Toby to accounting and me to art. At the end of our first married semester, my uncle and aunt took us out to dinner along with their college-age son and daughter and her boyfriend. My uncle asked everyone how they had done that semester. We all had done so-so. The boyfriend had flunked out. When my uncle got to Toby, Toby quietly said he had made a 4.0. I remember the shocked looks on everyone's face. Yeah, I married well.