Nephew graduated from the high school he started in as a freshman four years ago and his younger sister and I cheered for him, though we couldn't really see him, so far back from the stage and off to the side were our seats in the bleachers. 

Admittedly my part in this was minor compared to other graduate's adults, but I was allowed a full measure of joy along with all the others.

My joy got a boost from the letter the young man received today from the university:  he will attend with all expenses including tuition, housing, books, and living expenses paid for him.  He will also have a university job for ten hours a week so that he can afford a social life and some foolish expenditures besides.  He will enter this larger world in late August.  After working--not really hard, admittedly--to redeem himself after the expulsion and various tickets that he's gotten, the slate is clean and ready for him to mark it with greater care.

It's an exciting time for him.  Be happy with me.

My daughter Jean made the Dean's List. 

I think Mr. Langenscheidt will pay her a congratulatory visit.

For all kinds of reasons  I didn't take care of that tooth problem.  Some reasons were absolutely valid -- (Really!  I swear they were!) -- and some so thoroughly weak that even I knew I was just plain chicken --(Buckbuckbuckbuckbu-u-uck!) but the result is the same.

Who knew you could get instantaneous service at the big dental place?  All it took was a call there and answering the young receptionist's question with the information that my cheek and undereye get in the way of my seeing other things and BOOM!   The choice was either get into the office pronto or get myself directly to the emergency room where the dental office would probably send me anyway.  I chose the dental office, but prepared for the emergency room and the possibility that I'd end up staying there for a while.  I've been fooled by that emergency room trick before.  They say "ER", but they mean you'll be eating bad hospital food for days and you'll probably leave with less of you than you went in with.

Thanks to having to go in to the dentist on an "emergency" basis, I didn't get to see my regular dentist, Dr. Ladykiller.  He did zip in and frown into my mouth at the request of Dr. Young-Yikes!, but Dr. Young-Yikes! is clearly in charge.  She's the one who warned me to take ALL of the antibiotics ON TIME and to go to the hospital if that doesn't work.  She's the one who told me that she didn't want to scare me, but my eye is at some risk and if the infection gets into that, the next desination for the infection is my brain.  She succeeded in impressing me with the seriousness of my situation, a task which intense pain hadn't been able to do.  She failed in her quest not to scare me, though.  I'm pretty fond of my eye and I'm so fond of my brain that my eye is jealous of it.  The potential that it will be invaded did the trick.  Yes, she scared me.

Monday morning Dr. Dr. Young-Yikes!-Husband and I are meeting at 9:30 and Dr. Dr. Y-Y!-H will inflict untold pain upon me.  I intend to be in Madison in my art class at 9 AM on Tuesday morning, but Young-Yikes! was skeptical that I'll make it there.

All of this hasn't changed my weekend plans beyond adding a baker's dozen of yucky capsules large enough to choke a horse into my menu.  I have a Tuesday class to prepare for.  I have vanishing points to identify, value studies to do, and sketch journal pages to fill.

Oh, yeah.  And some high octane pain pills to make it all possible.  Oh yeahhhhhh...

The latest sketchcrawl was a week ago, but it’s been a busy week, so I’m just getting around to posting it tonight.   Showers had come and gone all day.  It was hot and sticky out and the thing I really wanted to draw was a cool refuge. 

This sweet spot was on the street side of a big old oddly rural looking building in the town next to mine.  The lucky folks who own it and obviously cherish it with care live across the street from a parkway surrounding a river that snakes through green neighborhoods.   Wouldn’t you like to enjoy a quiet hour or two here?

An afternoon at the animal shelter with my niece provided a much less peaceful opportunity to draw.  Kittens don’t sit still for long and Cookie Dough the bunny paused just long enough to identify the next impossible-to-reach place he was going to hide in.