Oh Very Young

Salad days for D2: she turned 18 Wednesday, and Wifey and I took her and her friend Michael to Christy's for dinner. Christy's is a venerable Coral Gables restaurant where my old UM Law professors would eat each day. We had a lovely meal, and toasted our young lady.

Last night we had 25 of her friends over, for Big Cheese Italian food. Wifey and I marvelled at all of the wonderful young folks --all high school seniors, and all excited about graduating and going to college.

Our friend and neighbor Diane came by, and gave D2 a lovely bracelet. My partner Paul came with his lovely date Patricia, and brought D2 a gorgeous necklace, made by his son's jewelry company. D2 was on cloulds 9, 10, etc...

While the younguns laughed and ate, we old-uns sat inthe living room drinking champagne. It was great, but it occurred to me later that much of the conversation was about our 80 and 90 something parents, and how they're detiorating, and how we all cope with it. Another major topic was pain, and the health problems of late 50 and 60 year olds --herniated discs, pain control, diminishing energy, etc... I kept my topic of hemorrhoids out of the conversation...

D2's birthday jackpot grew even more today. The mail brought an acceptance letter from the U, which I expected, but also a certificate that she won a "University Scholarship," which was a bit of a surprise. That scholarship is worth $24,000 per year --nearly 3/4 tuition. I was so excited, I woke D2 to show her the piece of paper, which had a value of over $100,000 (the award apparently increases as does tuition). She was characteristically nonplussed.

But the main thing is how great it is to be 18. I toasted all of D2's friends last night, telling them about how lucky Wifey and I were about the friends she choose. D1 is the same --she surrounds herself with only very high quality people.

Sometimes youth isn't wasted on the young.