Transitions

Beautiful Smart Wonderful Daughter, Boy in Black, and First Extra have been moving into an apartment near campus, the bottom half of an old house that they are furnishing it in a style that might be best described as Early Curb Side. The three of them will be living just across the street from the Classy House, a rental that houses a bunch of students they know, most importantly, Blue-eyed Ultimate Player. Film Guy, Skater Boy, Pirate Boy, and Sailor Boy have already been over to inspect the place, which feels like an extension of our own living room, just ten miles away.

My daughter finished her master’s thesis this summer. (Somehow, she was able to work amidst the noise and confusion of our household. It probably helped that her mother was out of town so much.) She and Boy in Black began orientation for their PhD programs at Snowstorm University this week. Now that I’m home from my travels, I’ve been cleaning my office, writing a syllabus, and getting ready for the start of a new semester. I’ve been thinking about the approach of winter as well: I froze seven quarts of tomato sauce on Tuesday, and I’m waiting for a delivery of firewood. With-a-Why has been thinking about the fall: he actually pulled out his summer reading list and asked me to order the books, so there’s some chance he might even read them before school starts.

Shaggy Hair Boy’s back-to-school project? He had his wisdom teeth pulled out.

He chose to stay awake for the surgery: the dental surgeon just used novocaine. (He’s nineteen so it was his decision, not mine.) “It hurt a lot,” he reported afterwards, talking through wads of bloody gauze, and clutching the four teeth in his hand. His strategy was to stay up most of the night before the surgery, so that afterwards, he was so exhausted he would sleep. The strategy seems to have worked; he has done little but sleep for the last 24 hours.

We’re going up to camp this weekend to swim and play bocce and canoe and sail. But then, starting Monday, I’m back to work, and the summer is over.