Graduation All I Ever Wanted

So after a rather busy and eventful week at the office, Friday was time to go to a graduation party. My old LI friend Kenny's boy was graduating from the expensive private school, Ransom, and he and his wife Joelle hosted a fest at Black Point Marina along with 4 other grad families. Wifey's back was rearing its ugly head BIG TIME -- so she bowed out. I went along with Jeff and Lili and 2/3 of their daughters. That family plans to fly up to New England to attend the graduation of the other 1/3 of their daughter corps, and then drive home, all 5 of them, in a mid sized car. They're extending the trip over a week. We got about 5 minutes from our house, and the youngest girl and Lili started arguing. I laughingly observed that maybe this didn't bode too well for their upcoming adventure. They're much braver than I am. The longest family car trip we ever took was to Charleston, SC for a college friend's wedding -- and it was before D2 was born! So we arrived at Black Point, and I said hi to Kenny. He pointed out that the only people who call him Kenny are folks like me who knew him on LI in Junior High School. I guess after becoming a Navy Captain and Pediatric Subspecialist, Ken is more appropriate. He'll always be Kenny to me. We joked about the party being held by the "Five Families," and decided Ken could be the Gambinos... We drank and socialized. I had some smug fun by knowing that my Ds went to public school, while everyone there paid close to $30k per year in private school tuition. Kenny's wife Joelle has a cool, diverse group of friends, and I enjoy chatting with them. The Heat game was on, and luckily was a blow out for the home guys, so nobody was too distracted watching them make it to the NBA Finals for the 4th straight time. I ran into Sonia, a Korean American opthamologist, who has operated on my friends Paul and Norman. She told me she was recently divorced. The running joke is that I would leave Wifey for this lady --she's pretty, fun, charming, and makes probably $750K per year. Nah! It would just bring on a new set of issues. But it was lovely talking to her. She's moved to a condo from her big house, and says she's enjoying it. Her boy was a fellow grad and is heading to Cornell in the Fall. Funny. Not too many Ransom grads go to public schools for college. Jeff drove us home, and I found D2 there, along with her friend Tara and her Boca boyfriend Corey. The last of the Heat game was on. I have one more graduation on the horizon -- D2's scheduled Master's degree next May. We might throw a party. Nah -- she has her eye on a new car. My deal with the girls is that I would buy them 2 new cars -- they each got one in high school, and, if they attended state schools, another upon college graduation. Well, D1 wrecked her high school car -- so got her #2 early. And there's so little mileage on D2's we're keeping it for at least half of her final Gville year. Still, graduation parties are a nice thing to attend. Especially on warm breeze kissed nights, on the water, with old and new friends.