milestone

Off she goes 👍🥲

| patmcg

We dropped Clairey off at college and left her in the best hands possible down in San Antonio.

I can’t say much because I’m still feeling pretty bitter-sweet about it.

I drove down with Claire in her car, then we all helped her move in, did some shopping, spent the night, did the various orientations, and had a “hello goodbye” picnic.

And then the administration insisted that we parents actually, you know, leave.

I was really happy we could all be there for Claire, even Molly, who missed an afternoon of high school to make the trip to SA.

I’m so proud of you Claire!

For the first time as a dad, I can really say that I wish you were five years old again. 🥲

But even though you’re officially “all grows up” now, we still have a lifetime ahead of us of goofing off and having deep talks about history and philosophy. Based on your new location, something tells me those talks are only going to get better. 👩‍🎓

The way the Olivia Rodrigo cookie Crumbl’s

| patmcg

With Claire headed off to college in two days, we were looking for something fun to do. Molly suggested we go to Cumbl Cookies to get the official limited-edition Olivia Rodrigo GUTS cookie.

We had been deeply amused by one review of this cookie that went viral, describing it as “Olivia Rodriguez, that little Mexican girl that be crying… zero out of ten.”

“Hey Dad, the Olivia Rodrigo cookie is back!” Molly told me.

“We have to go try it,” I said.

And so on the last official night with me and Claire and Molly before Claire goes off and conquers the world (starting with college), we hit Crumble for the GUTS cookie. We gave it eight out of ten. Claire got a super good chocolate chip cookie. We also had Indian street food and a pretty animated discussion about music, dating, and feminism.

It was such a beautiful, perfect night and literally a bitter-sweet way to wrap up our nostalgic summer and send off our Clairey.

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”. 🙏

Molly picks up the guitar 🎸

| patmcg

Molly has been talking about learning to play the guitar for a while. “I just want to play covers,” she said.

Last week, we talked in theory about guitar chords, frets, strings, etc. And also just how too hold a guitar.

This week she asked if I could teach her more guitar while the rice crispy treats she was bringing to a Galentine’s sleepover later tonight cooled. ☺️

Was this dad heaven?

We looked up the chords for My Tears Ricochet, since Molly is still a major Swiftie and thought it sounded like of of TS’s simpler songs.

The first chord was a C, so we decided to start with that.

It took a bit of time, patience, and finger pain, but Molly stuck with it. By the time the rice crispy treats were cooled and ready to cut, she knew how to play a C-chord!

Amazing. I thought this would take a few days or weeks, especially since Molly has pretty small fingers at this point in the game.

I was so proud of her. And I had to play her a scene from the movie Flora and Son where the main character first learns the C-chord, and her guitar teacher gives the best speech about it before just jumping into the G-chord.

You are now the proud owner of C, alright?

You didn’t own that five minutes ago. You’re rich. You own something Elvis owned. You own something new, and nobody can take it away from you. This is a gift you can take to the grave and use it whenever you want.

And in the right context, it can speak directly to your heart in ways we don’t even understand. More than thoughts, more than words, more than ideas. Just a chord hanging in there in the air… C.

Damn, I love that scene, and Molly seemed to like it too.

I told Molly she should look up G, the next chord in the song. When I got back from checking email, she showed me her G-chord, and it looks pretty good. 🤯

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! 👏