Au Revoir, Les Enfants!

Last night, we were in the kitchen having a postprandial piece of chocolate (and I was having a glass of 2006 Sanford Pinot Noir, a shimmering wine), and A. and B. put on my shoes and took turns stalking around. God help me, it was a glimpse into the future.

Yesterday was their graduation from elementary school. It took place in the middle school gymnasium. I believe I was the only single parent in the building. Certainly, from what I could tell, I was the only unaccompanied adult.

If you have been to an elementary school graduation, you know that there were balloons in the school colors, that speeches were given by the elementary and middle school principals, that several children read from essays with topics like "responsibility" and "respect," and that the children mostly looked adorable, some looked awkward, and two or three looked like 20-year-olds. There was one girl in knee-high fringed suede moccasins, a paisley peasant mini dress with big floaty sleeves and big aviator glasses (and lots of makeup) who was a dead ringer for MaryKateandAshley. (Her father makes $150,000 a year styling celebrity hair, as I learned from the girls after Career Day.) One boy was six feet tall. One girl wore a strapless electric blue prom dress. Some of the girls wobbled on high heels.

Maternal pride compels that I report that not only did A. and B. look beautiful (A. wore a red T shirt dress in that sort of Greek style that you see everywhere nowadays with pink leggings and black ballet flats, B. wore a green cotton dress with a scoop neck and black leggings and sparkling zebra print ballet flats--the outfits were a million times cuter than they sound--and both girls wore their hair in the kind of buns favored by ballerinas), but they both won 3 academic awards.

After graduation, I took A. and B. out to dinner and gave them free rein with the menu. As they well deserved. The school year has been a rough one, but they managed, and they did an excellent job. I am very, very proud of them. And also? They are kind and loving and basically happy.

P.S. I will say that it was a little awkward being the only unaccompanied adult in the gymnasium. But the principal made a point of looking over at me and waving and smiling a few times during the ceremony, which was so kind of her. (At first, I didn't realize she was waving at me, so I looked behind me, but there was no one there.)

P.P.S. La voiture is still staying at the luxury hotel in the shop. Who knows how much it will cost. Every so often, I try to inoculate myself against sticker shock by naming a random outrageous sum.

P.P.P.S. Haven't found the operating system disks for the computer yet. Oh well. Again, if this be the worst thing that ever happens to me, I am Fortune's Daughter.