claire

Afternoon at the Blanton

| patmcg

Summer has the family scattered all around. With Molly still on her way back from the Pacific Northwest with her grandparents, and Claire back in town, it was a me & Claire night.

With Claire heading off to college in August, I wanted to do something fun and new with our rare one-on-one evening.

And then a big stroke of luck came our way: I got off work early for Independence Day. 🇺🇸 Our fun evening had become the rarest of great things – a fun weekday afternoon! We’re talking Ferris Bueller vibes here.

After a two-minute scan of the brain, I realized we weren’t gong to make it to a Cubs game or a downtown parade today, but we did need to take the opportunity to jump on one of the great museums around town, with their weird and pesky and mostly weekday hours.

So we met at the Blanton Museum of Art.

Claire and I had a great time, saw the famed Austin, and explored the gallery for like 90 minutes. This was long enough to take it in but not dull the senses. We discovered some amazing artists like Alfredo Jaar and Mequitta Ahuja.

One the way home in hot summer traffic, Claire suggested we drop by JuiceLand to get acai bowls and skip dinner. Perfect thinking.

It’s always fun when a tedious in-office work day turns into a fun downtown excursion with your kiddo in her last summer at home as a “kid”. 🙏

Graduation Day!

| patmcg

Claire officially graduated high school today! And she did it with “flying colors” 🎓, as she would say to be silly.

Claire was surrounded by her extended family (her sister, her mom, her grandparents, plus her uncle Tim by video, and oh yeah, me) and given a loving and entertaining graduation ceremony from her school at the Ladybird Auditorium on the UT campus. 🙌

I hope to post a link to the hilarious “cold open” student film that played at the beginning of the ceremony.

We dined at Cipollina, which Claire describes as, “more of a West Austin bistro,” 😆 and then we sent her on her way.

Just kidding, she’s here ’til college starts in August.

I told her I think we should continue to be in each other’s lives even after she goes to college, and I will always consider her like family. (This is our running joke 😉).

Mitski en Miami 🎸🏝️

| patmcg

Claire is a huge fan of Mitski, and so am I. Claire and I had been trying to see Mitski live for a couple of years, but last time she was nearby, in Houston, we noticed too late and the aftermarket tickets were like $700. Ouch; that’s almost Taylor Swift levels.

When Mitski announced a tour for new hew release, The Land is Inhospitable and So Are We, we wanted to jump on it.

The only problem was that Mitski was not playing in Austin. Or anywhere in Texas. Or within like 1000 miles of us. 🤷🏻‍♂️ We puzzled at how Mitski could miss our whole big state. Does she hate Texas? I mean, she does have a song based in Texas, so what gives?

So I coordinated care with Claire’s mom to get her a Mitski trip for Christmas. The only condition was that Claire could not miss even one day of school.

Some late nights on the problem yielded a good result – we could fly to a Mitski show in Miami, New York, Boston, or LA in January/Febraury, all for less than the $700 (each) that the Houston concert would have cost. Being winter, I chose Miami – duh. 🏝️

I told Claire we had a very early flight out on Saturday morning, but at least it’s direct. Claire asked, “Are we going to have to get up at like 4 am?” And I was like, “Nah, the flight’s at 7:10.” And then I was like, “Oh crap. Yeah, we’re going to have to get up at 4 am.” 🤦🏻‍♂️

The flight back got us home at midnight the following day, Sunday. Then back to school/work. Yeah, this better be a good concert.

The rest of the trip is sort of a blur, but yes, it was a great concert. Mitski had some amazing theatrical music, some surprising country versions of her songs, and some weird but beautiful dancing.

The icing on the cake was walking around Miami Beach in the warm weather, joking around, talking about deep subjects, napping in our “flophouse” of an Airbnb, having ice cream, coffee, and French toast, watching weirdos and families stroll down Collin Avenue, watching people play beach volleyball, visiting the botanical gardens… it was all a great time with Clairey.

It was really cool to be hanging out with what seemed like – and in fact actually is – an adult friend. I hope we have more fun trips in our future even though she’s all grown up now. 🤘

Adios, 2023 / Getaway Car

| patmcg

We rounded out the holiday season by doing Peppermint Parkway at the Circuit of the Americas. Driving the MINI Electric on the Formula 1 track (even at 25 mph 😆) was amazing. The best part was trading off songs with the kids. I started with The Distance by Cake (obvious choice for the race track), Molly called in Getaway Car by TS, Siri jumped in with Video Games by Lana Del Rey, and Claire kicked in a Lana’s Let The Light In.

Adios, 2023 ✌️🎉 #nye #circuitoftheamericas #austin #texas #atx #shotoniphone #christmascore #mcgkids via Instagram https://instagr.am/p/C1hVUXvufLR/

This blog is now a book 🤯

| patmcg

When I started writing this blog lo those many years ago, I told myself “I’ll keep writing ’til they turn 18.” Well, now Claire is 18, so I guess I’m done, right? Not quite. Molly still has a few more years before she’s 18.

Nonetheless, to celebrate Claire’s 18th birthday, and since this blog probably won’t live online forever (I mean, at some point, credit cards do expire), I decided to get Claire’s portion of the bog printed as a book that she can take with her.

I assumed this book would come out to a like a 200-page paperback. But no, my friend. Claire’s book is 850-page tome (and I don’t use that word lightly). Actually, according to the printer, it literally needed to be a three-book series.

It goes to show, “If you work on something a little bit every day, you end up with something that is massive.“

As the preface in the book says:

Clairey, you make me proud every day. It’s hard to even scratch the surface on how kind, funny, and interesting you are – but here are three volumes on the subject.;-) – Dad

So Claire’s childhood is now officially a trilogy in ranks with The Hunger Games. Okay, maybe having your childhood likened to a violent, impoverished, dystopian civilization is not what we want here.

Let’s go with the original Happy Potter trilogy. I guess she has four more books, at least, in her series.

Happy 18th, Clairey!

| patmcg

Our Clairey is now an officially a legal person of her own. She can now vote, open her own checking account, join the army, serve on a jury, purchase a lottery ticket, get her own pet, rent an apartment, give blood, all the things. She has a lot of options now.

I told her she’s more than welcome to continue to stay at my house. The first rent payment is due on December 1. 😉 (Kidding! For now.)

We had a great family birthday with her her whole family, including all her living grandparents, and enjoyed all-you-can-eat meat at K BBQ.

She’s an official driver now!

| patmcg

Clairey got her official driver’s license today! 🥳🎉.

After all the driving classes, tests, practice, etc. the final hurdle was getting Claire an to the actual Texas DMV that had an opening to take her.

Claire’s mom “drove” most of the driver’s license process (so to speak). With all the Austin DMV locations booked way out, Kit literally drove Claire to Columbus on a Thanksgiving-week day off to finish this process.

And kudos to Claire’s grandma for doing the bulk of the driving practice.

Many thanks to them both and congrats to Claire! 👏

Creek Show

| patmcg

With Claire finishing up high school and heading to college next year, the holidays are feeling especially nostalgic. Sure, we’ll see her over the holidays after she goes to college, but it won’t be the same as now. 😭

With that in mind, our first holiday-style foray this season was the classic Creek Show, which feels like a mini pre-Christmas light event downtown and warmup for the madness of Trail of Lights.

Actually, their mom got the tickets but gave them to use since she was sick. Thank you, Kit!