The official school photos at Claire’s school were surprisingly well done and artsy! Here’s the one I got to keep from Claire. She gave it to me because it had a distinctly Wes Anderson vibe, circa The Royal Tenenbaums. ☺️
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 😉).
College visit 📚 #trinityuniversity #college #trinity #sanantonio #satx #daughter #shotoniphone via Instagram https://instagr.am/p/C40s_-3Ovqw/
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. 🤘
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.
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! 👏
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!
At the beginning of the summer, Molly was feeling pretty nostalgic about Galveston from the past few years and requested a return trip this year. Last summer’s trip to Ireland was going to have to be swapped for something more local this summer anyways, so Galveston was perfect in my book.
Since Galveston was such a major part of my own childhood, it really melted my heart that Molly felt the same way, so off we went for quick summer trip to the sandy island. Claire was excited too.
Here’s the trip in pictures, which do not quite capture the intense heat or the relaxed, good cheer. ☺️
The beach…
Misc
Go Karts!
It’s not that often that I get a “framed” picture of Claire and Molly posing together these days.
But alas, after a fun night of tacos and goofiness at El Chilito with my brother (who is visiting town), his girlfriend’s dog (the dog is visiting, not the girlfriend), and my mom, they were in the mood for a cute picture. 📸
McG Kids 