FDOS

The old English major in me can't avoid the symbolism -- and one of my favorite themes is new beginnings. It's why I used to love the First Day of School. FDOS is today in Miami -- the papers are full of articles about how the traffic is about to worsen, and the ads and sales are in full swing. The Ds visited the Midtown Target yesterday, and got stuck in a 1 hour line -- the new Downtown immigrants, curiously gringos, were all there with little kids, buying their supplies. I always was the one who walked the little Ds into their classes. I remember wearing my suit and tie, as I was headed to the office afterwards, and the laughter and excitement about the day. The blackboards were clean, the screw ups hadn't screwed up yet -- everyone had a perfect GPA. By October the gleam was gone, but not on the FDOS. Those days are long gone for Wifey and me. D1's last FDOS was over a year ago -- when she began her Master's final year at FIU. D2 heads back to Gville Wednesday -- her first classes for her Master's start next Monday. But I won't be there to walk her in and meet her professors... Most of our friends' kids are finished with college, or still there. The occasional straggler, like my friend Stuart, who got married late and has 11 and 8 year olds, is the outlier. His boy starts Middle School today. His wife Traci called yesterday, to track down D1 about some nutrition questions, and I wished her luck. Middle school is the worst. She wasn't worried -- she "had a blast" in junior high and expected the same for her boy. May it be so... The Ds both want to raise families close by, and I hope that's how it works out. They may each head to the Northeast for awhile, for boyfriends and careers, but promise they want Wifey and me close to help raise the kids. We take that as a tremendous compliment -- we messed them up relatively so little, they want to reprise our parental skills for their own kids. Who knows what the future holds? But if I AM blessed to have local grandkids, I fully plan to take a little hand someday, and head into that newly scrubbed building...