Saturday, May 8th, 2021
I got of to a late start today.
After yesterday’s late night I did not get up until 8:45. Of course to a perfectly sunny morning. During the day we experienced several seasons within a few hours ranging from perfect sunshine to clouds, wind, hail and back to sunshine in the late afternoon. I find this so unfair! All the weather gods and whatever other spirits clearly conspired against the seniors by sending rain for the Prom last night. It is what it is, but it still seems unfair.
Because of the heavy rains forecast (and not materializing) for the morning the Aikidoka met at the Dojo again. This time we had the option between street clothes and Gis. I did briefly entertain the idea of dusting of the Gi, but because of getting up late just grabbed whatever clothes I could find and of course did not think to bring a jacket as I thought there would be no communal lunch; well there was, B’s and L’s patio. Glad I did not done a GiasI would have been the only one! But class is becoming more normal as we bow in and out and formed ourusual circle after class.
Lunch started out rather nice until it began to rain, which had me dash to close the car. By the time I got to the car the rain turned to hail and the lunch group grabbed the outside chairs and migrated to the poll room. Rules are all practitioners going to the dojo have to be fully vaccinated, so we figured it was safe to be sitting on the pool deck maskless. EM also joined as she had two hours between her training and work. She took an Uber and order lunch to Kimbal Place and napped on a chair after being quizzed about Prom and college plans.
Post the Prom on the Mall we have received a flurry of e-mails full of gratitude. Despite the horrid weather the event proved a success! It seems the Seniors had a goodtime and could create lasting memories. They will presumably be the only class that can say they had a Prom on the National Mall. The PTSA Send out this lovely thank you note:
Last night, more than 300 students came to the Senior Parents' Sponsored Photo Prom Alternative on The Mall. There was music, a little dancing (since we were on Federal land, we were not bound by the DC Mayor's ban on dancing at events -- socially distanced outdoor line dances are OK!), professional photographers, and so many smiling students, all dressed up for in-person fun. The kids were perfect! The rain mostly stayed away and Marine One did a fly-by right before 5:30 to kick things off! This would not have happened without the immense creativity, partnership, tremendous effort, and hard work of Jennifer Maged, Margarete Biallas, Kathy Wagner Hill, Maureen Wilson, and Deborah Scheck -- they put in the permit application, found the rentals, and even de-thorned and prepped 300 roses on Thursday and transported them down. They have worked on this for months, and it shows. They are superstars! Thank you five so much!! Thanks to Marina Bowsher for adding her outstanding organizational skills and handling volunteers, and to Cathy Stocker for set up help and bringing extra tents! Some 30 parents volunteered to help, across all grade levels. Turning up on a damp night is so appreciated -- you are truly so important to our school community. Thank you all for helping to make some memories for our seniors!! On behalf of the PTSA, it was our pleasure to support everything you did!
It is lovely to receive recognition for all the hard work we have put in. We will have a debrief session at M’s house with food and wine on Monday night, at the time slot reserved for what had been our weekly planning nights.
We do have a few more events for the Seniors. The school will be hosting a carnival on the 19th and the IB parents are organizing a picnic in a neighborhood park on the 22nd. The formal graduation will be on the 4th of June and then the kids are done with high school. Very hard to believe.
After a short afternoon nap in lieu of a swim I headed down to DC for happy hour with a colleague I had befriended in Istanbul. A lovely couple.
They had invited a bunch of current and former colleagues to share wine and food in their tiny one-bedroom apartment, which they call the college dorm. It is clearly an interim solution as they split their time between DC, Miami and Boston where their daughters live. He will retire at the end of the year and they then plan to move to Costa Rica and maintain a home in Europe. It was fun to hang out with them. It felt rather strange to be in a room with six other people without wearing a mask, but all participants were fully vaccinated, so we should be okay. Weird how what used to be normal has become noteworthy.
Given now both of my headlights are malfunctioning I had to make sure to get home before sunset. The last thing I need is to be stopped by the cops because of lack of headlights after a few drinks. I guess the car is due to the shop again on Monday to have this issue sorted for the umpteenth time. Because I stayed up until almost 2:00 I shall call it a night early today and catch up on sleep. No major plans for tomorrow. Maybe I can convince EM to go out on a boat with me if weather permits. Then a swim at 16:45 and presumably a grocery run.
The USA reported 49k new infections over the past twenty-four hours to bring the total to 33.4 million.