FINISHING OFF MAY

Okay, so it's June.  I can deal with that.  6 days of school left.  Not that we're counting or anything.  Maybe when I can stop getting up at 6:00 a.m., I'll start saying something of substance.  Meanwhile, May was busy but lovely.

May 12:

Sabrina needed new black shoes for her choral concert.  Grateful that she didn't also need a new dress, off we went to DSW.  And somehow the only shoes that would work were stilettos.  Her first pair of stilettos.  We should all feel lucky that she didn't fall off them climbing up and down the various platforms during the concert.  And then it turned out that she had a perfectly good pair of black wedges that would have worked just fine.  All I can say is, I want to see her get some good use out of those stilettos!



May 13:

The choral concert.  The girls' choir sang Taylor Swift's "You Belong With Me," wearing pj's and phony glasses.  Cute.



May 14:

Community service is a big deal and sometimes something of a joke at these private high schools.  Yes, it's good for the kids to get out there and see other parts of their community, and yes, the idea of noblesse oblige can be a very good thing for kids as privileged as many of these kids are.  But sometimes it all amounts to cramming in the hours to check off a box on a list of requirements.... 

We had a little of both as Cory and Sabrina squeaked in under the wire with this year's community service.  They went to a public school in Chinatown to help set up the music program there (in conjunction with a private non-profit because, as of this month, the LAUSC now has 30 music teachers left for 500 elementary schools.  And no school librarians -- they all just got laid off.  Shameful.  And people ask why we scrape up the money for private school?)... 

Some kids helped string cellos.  Some kids painted murals in the new music room.  Cory and Sabrina helped entertain kids by singing such classics as Justin Bieber's "Baby" and the SpongeBob theme song....



May 15:

More of the community service.  Our high schoolers joined with the local kids to perform "Stand By Me."  Sabrina helped coach the singers, and that's Cory in the corner playing a bucket in lieu of an actual drum...  There is a special place in heaven for the directors of elementary school orchestras (a place where no one ever plays a note out of tune)...



May 16:

This is the pic that's going on Cory's birthday party invitation.  Whether he likes it or not.



May 17:

Sabrina misses hanging out in Santa Monica quite a bit, so when we had to drop Cory at a party on the westside, off we went to the pier for dinner.  This was the view from our table.  Nice.



May 18:

The end of the school year brings lots of end-of-the-year celebrations, including the parent association dinner.  I could have figured out what we were eating without the posted menu, but it was a nice touch.



May 19:

A lovely chocolate ganache cake with raspberry coulis.  And no one wanted it.  Because the parent association president was surprised with a huge chocolate birthday cake, and that's what we all went for.  I sure hope some homeless shelter got the chocolate ganache cake!



May 20:

Okay, it's a lousy picture.  The car was moving.  The car in front of us was moving.  I had to zoom in, which is a bad idea on an iPhone.  But it was the day of the Horcrux Hunt held by Sabrina's Harry Potter club at school.... and there, on the car in front of us, was a bumper sticker that said "Horcruxes Got Soul."  (Squint, and maybe you can make it out.)



May 21:

I didn't take this picture (though it was taken with my phone).  I wouldn't have been allowed within 1000 yards of this epic event:  The Guitar Hero Championships at Cory's youth group.  Yes, Cory won.  For the second year in a row.  Thereby creating his own dynasty.  And for this, he got his name written in sharpie on a toy guitar kept in someone else's office.  I'm so proud.  All those hundreds of hours of playing video games were worth it.  So proud.



May 22:

The Harvard-Westlake fashion show -- Fashion for Action.  Held every couple of years or so as a fundraiser (this year for a cancer clinic).  The kids put the whole thing on themselves, and get everything donated.  Sabrina picked up a couple of items from the show at deep deep discount afterwards.  Fun was had by all.



May 23:

And here's one of the items Sabrina picked up after the fashion show.  I'm planning to borrow it.



May 24:

Never in a million years (or 16 years, as the case may be) did I expect to have a son who got a varsity letter in a sport.  (Never in my own high school life did I even date a guy who had a letterman's jacket.)  But Cory came home from his fencing awards banquet with his varsity letter in hand.  Now where do I buy the jacket to go with it?



May 25:

I don't need an ocean view.  All I need is some trees to look at, and my heart relaxes.



May 26:

We were stunned when our friends Greg and Kathy announced they were moving to La Crescenta, 22 miles away.  We've celebrated Thanksgiving with them almost every year for years now, and Christmas Eve, and all sorts of occasions, and somehow you think friends like that will always be just down the street or so.  Here they are at when we went out for one last family dinner together...



May 27:

I rarely get good pictures of the kids performing with my iPhone.  So I'm glad someone did!  Here's the yearbook photo of Cory performing at his jazz concert in February.  My future rock star.



May 28:

There's the kind of faux community service you do for your school requirements.  And then there's the times you actually do a service to someone in your own community.  Here we are with a filled U-Haul ready to help Greg and Kathy make the big move.



May 29:

And here's the house they moved to.  As soon as we saw this house, we understood completely.  Of course they had to move.  And Thanksgiving is at their house this year!



May 30:

A lovely Memorial Day barbecue with our writers group.  And a lovely moment for our dear friend Jack with Naya.  Someone get this man a dog of his own.



May 31:

My mom's old condo closed escrow a few weeks ago, but we had forgotten there were still a few things there to be hauled out to the dumpster or the Goodwill.  Off we went for one last time to finish it out.  And I got to take this pic of my mom's view for her first 10 years there... the view she couldn't see for her last 8 years....



...Okay, that wraps up May.  Always a busy month.  And what do you know, I actually sneaked a tiny bit of content in here as well. 

More to come!