Students Come, Students Go...

Early on in our careers as parents, Wifey and I agreed that we wanted to be the house where our kids always wanted to bring friends. Neither of us was particularly fastidious, and neigher cared that much for the sanctity of our possessions, so it was an easy thing to do.

I'm proud to report we've succeeded. Over the years, we've been privileged to grow close to many of the Ds' friends, and it continues to this day.

D2 has had her friend Ali staying over for the past several nights. Ali is a sweetheart --grew up on LI, and chose to go to college at UF. She and D2 are sorority sisters. Last night we got the chance to talk, and shared our views on a variety of topics over some take out chicken. It was gratifying to me to see the quality of LI kids is still so high.

Even though D1 lives in her own apartment now, our house is still her home base, and we saw several of her friends over the break. Brilliant Hannah, the Stanford senior was here, and she and D1 made plans for D1 to visit her in SF later in January.

Hannah is the kind of brilliant young woman who never shows it. She has a hippie vibe to her, and is pretty taciturn, but then with questioning you find out she has amazingly high grades in tough Stanford classes...

We're so blessed with the Ds, but at the top of the list is their choice of friends. They've always chosen high quality people, and savored their relationships with them.

It's our treat to have these impressive kids visit. Wifey and I love it.

In the anti-blessing department: D2 attended a charity walk/run yesterday, in honor of a friend who was killed in a car crash in Gainesville in October. The event was to raise funds for a scholarship in Andrew Parker's memory, for a Palmetto Bay student headed to UF.

I just read a line in the Mark Twain autobiography my sister Sue bought me that is right on point. Twain was given the news that his beloved 24 year old daughter died of meningitis while he was in Europe. He noted that it was one of the great mysteries of mankind that a parent could be hit by that kind of thunderstrike and still be able to live on.

And so it is for Andrew's folks.

Meanwhile, Wifey and I savor our Ds, and their friends. If a house is happier than when energetic young folks stay in it, laughing and talking and planning --I can't imagine it.