It was a long weekend.

It all started well. My final undergrad Mothers weekend at the University of Illinois. Compared to 4 years of high school, these 4 years of college have gone SO quickly. Please don't misunderstand. My #1 son is not perfect, I have never thought myself the mother that says, "OH Jack would NEVER" simply because I know he very well might.

I am so proud of my tall, strong, handsome, smart, funny, bullheaded, bossy, arrogant, opinionated, ridiculous #1 son that my heart is bursting. I have taken so much grief from so many people, "well, you are just not that into being a mom", "you are too easy (or hard) on him" "you give him too much" "you'd better get him under control"....he was certainly not easy to raise, he was my first and I didn't even bother buying a book...I learned when he was about 6 months old that I could not control him. I have erred on the side of depending on him to be more of a grown up than he should have had to be and that caused problems that I don't know if I will ever be able to rectify, but I think he understands and will someday forgive me. I am his parent for sure, but I think we are friends, too.

We had a good weekend. We shopped and spent a ton of money. We ate good food, I met some of his friends, we drank some beers, had some alcohol fueled whipped cream and a shot or so. But I left Champaign with tears in my eyes and a lump in my throat. He is done. No way he does not graduate on May 12th. The event I have been working for since August 8th, 1990 has occurred. He is educated, I will have his picture in front of the Alma Mater in his cap and gown, i bought him a Univeraity of Illinois diploma frame. How I will manage to get through graduation with any makeup on at all will be a miracle...as Jack would say, "Angie, you are one hot mess"...

He starts graduate school at the University of Illinois on May 20th, so at least I get to look forward to 2 more Mothers Weekends...

I drove home and met the family for MG's swim team banquet. Long story short, at the end of the banquet, her coach of 4 years, Joan Jobst, resigned. Joan is a good coach, she is a tough coach, but a fair coach. She is a coach who stays on the sidelines during a meet. She commands and receives respect from her swimmers. She is not a demonstrative coach. This year when MG's Medley Relay team made a State cut, she huged each of the girls and I felt that was the highest of compliments and so did MG. I was embarrassingly tearful as is normal for me. Joan is all we know. She will be missed.