State Champion

When Summer dropped her 800m time from 2:22 to 2:17, one of the track dads (Tom Lucas) quipped that we’d just saved ourselves 40K in tuition. When she dropped it to 2:15 and won the state championship, she received a letter from the Yale track coach and we figured out that her time put her squarely in the middle of nearly all the Ivy League track teams. She’d be the best at MIT and not quite the middle at Stanford but not the bottom either.

She wanted her name to hang in the Interlake Gym in perpetuity and that will now happen. Most girls get really tired by the end of the 800m race. She must also! But she continues to pass girls, even those with a last minute surge. She visualizes her goal clearly and doesn’t let anything mar the image. Her coach Brad described the extreme fatigue you have to push past. Summer minimized this. “ I just keep accelerating.”  I think about her when  I swim 4 50’s in a row, time increasing from 48 sec to almost 60 and I can’t “push” past it and stay “fast.” I can’t imagine how Summer does it.

Tyler’s Grandma said she watched Summer’s race with skepticism. A Newport girl with longer legs was far ahead. Tyler told her not to worry.  Before long the girl looked over her shoulder stunned to see Summer approaching quickly.  Summer powered past Miss Newport with ease, impressing Grandma.

Today, she pulled an Eric. Decided it was homework day. She was never rude but she ignored the chatter around her and powered through physics and French homework til it was done. She had nothing but homework and water for hours on end, interrupting once to offer support for her parents over Emily which she rarely does-Emily felt a quarter’s tuition was too high a price to pay for getting a new dog against our wishes. Summer pointed out that if she’s really worried about $ she could forgo the dog saving the $500 it costs to buy her plus the tuition we’re unloading on her.

Nobody can get mad at Summer but Emily and I didn’t have to hash out that topic after Summer’s clear analysis.

I finished the first draft of my book on Mother’s Day.It’s printed on the backs of Summer’s old homework sheets-helpful in case I need examples of hard work during my edits.  I don’t really want to be finished because it’s my favorite hobby at the moment and I want it to be much better.(I’m trying to ignore the great abyss into which it’s likely to fall when finally complete).  I did scene triage in which I was supposed to mercilessly delete chapters without action advancing character’s goals. I deleted at least 2. Now, I need to do 7 edits. THe first is the character edit. There my protagonist is being outshined by side characters so he needs a makeover. Also, my setting needs more depth. This is my favorite part. Just like Eric nixed pot in college, he  nixed my impassioned conversations on how to re-invent healthcare, transportaion, and city design. So now, I just make it even more radical (cars in my conversation were stuck underground- in my books, they’re deprived of roads and power so they’re basically gone.)

Eric was bitten by a stray dog in Athens. But it’s healing well and he was able to follow my advice for Augmentin and a tetanus shot for $20 from a pharmacist. He also hired 4 people for Microsoft, lifting them out of the soured Greek economy. He thought he’d be immune to the allure of Greece but he was wrong. He compared Athens with Tel Aviv (solar water heaters on the rooves and 4 story buildings everywhere) and Madrid!  Better still, he promised to take me there. He loved his uphill run into a forested park in spite of the irritable dog.

Lauren and Emily are moving out August 1st into an apartment close to campus and on the same level so they don’t have to trudge up any big hills to get to class. (Is that good or bad? ). I’m so happy that they’ll live together. Emily even thought about friends- the apartment is full of UW students with pets and Emily feels totally comfortable talking with another dog owner. Her future dog is now the size of a guinea pig apparently. I’ve promised to spoil Summer rotten as soon as the her sisters leave. They’ve tempered our enthusiasm by  muttering disapproval when we hash out track or college admission statistics too energetically. Next goals for the kids: admission to the majors of their choices: informatics for Lauren and Psychology for Emily. 

I wanted to call my Iris, Rafi, Judy, and Solly today but I biked to UW to hear Tom Gibb’s commencement address to the graduating Civil Engineers then went to Tyler’s graduation party with Summer and Kat’s graduation party alone.  and LIsa left today for Provence and Spain.

Summer found a simple gray dress for under $30 at a Thrift shop in Seattle. Last night she wore it to prom. Tyler’s mother and grandmother thought it was elegant and beautiful- sort of like Marilyn Monroe. About 25 couples and their parents all crowded into the Margolis yard for pictures- I feel like I enjoyed the beauty with Rina since I was on the phone with her and texting her photos all the while. Plus she reminded me how wonderful baths are. I took a bath in my huge tub after biking to UW today. Aaaaaahhhh.