The Blankest Weeks

Today is my daughter Alex’s high school graduation.

This afternoon a small group of family will gather in a barely furnished room to eat, drink and watch her open her gifts. Then we'll trudge through afternoon rush-hour freeway traffic, hoping to get to Cox Arena at San Diego State University on time.

Tonight I get to stay up all night locked in a high school gym with 350 teenagers, hoping they appreciate the hundreds of hours of hard labor and fundraising we parents have done to make their Grad Nite so special.

Tomorrow morning I take my houseguests to the airport.

And continue packing at the old house and unloading boxes at the new house and doing all that other stressful, time-consuming moving stuff that seems terrible at the time but not so much when it’s done.

And get the new sprinkler system fixed so I don’t have to hand water the new lawn much longer, especially while I’m also responsible for the old lawn.

And get the old house ready for inspection on Monday morning (even if the movers don’t come for another three days....)

And find a new home for the aquatic turtles.

And track down my daughter's missing passport (lost since we applied in March at the State Department!) before her trip to Europe next month.

And shop for a new car.

And hunt for a new job.

On the last three runs in my soon-to-be-former neighborhood, I’ve passed a tails-up nickel on my way to the water fountain next to a busy park. I know what kind of luck a face-down penny can bring, which is why there’s no way I’m grabbing for a shiny coin that suggests 5 times the bad luck. Something tells me others have had similar thoughts. I checked this morning and it's still there.