Just hopping on here to not fall too far behind again. On to May 2025 with a lot of happenings. On the home front, we had trucks come to tear up the plumbing next to our and others' homes, so it was a lot of noise and dirt and having to park my car further, but hopefully this fixed all the sewage problems for the townhome units across from us.
Speaking of home, my neighbor came up to me one day to tell me a suspicious man was wandering around near our home. We flagged down some officers passing by, and they spoke to him and he left. They were actually patrolling the area because of a reported scammer who had been going door to door and collecting people's personal and financial information. He came to our door oddly enough a little after the other man had been by our home. This was the first time our security camera footage was requested, and I was able to show it on my phone to the officers, who actually apprehended the man a little while later as he was making another stop nearby.
On a lighter note, Manny got tickets for this 30+ clubbing event (i.e., it started and ended early, and guests could leave early), so he went clubbing for the first time, and I went for the first time in 20+ years. They played a lot of older songs, even from the 70s and 80s. It's all secular music, so not for some of my friends who don't listen to that. The waitresses were also very skimpily dressed. It was fun, though, especially the lights and bubbles. We were out by 6 pm and ready for dinner. We had a delicious Mediterranean meal. Manny picks some really good places.
The month of May meant the end of sophomore year of college for Naomi, so we moved her out of her dorm. Unfortunately one of the two elevators was down, and she lived on a middle floor, so that meant the working one would fill up before stopping on her floor. It delayed us quite a bit, but thankfully we made it. Afterward Manny took us to eat at a Korean-Japanese fusion place. We celebrated the end of the year and Naomi's admission into an intensive and elite graphic design BFA program at her school. She worked hard and did an amazing job on her portfolio. I really would love to share her portfolio with you here, but it's private for her. Out of 400 design students, about 100 apply to two rounds of applications, and only about 25 are admitted at the end.
May was also the end of the year for Lucas's sports class, and the final year for the coordinator. She did an amazing job, and now there are four of us who have taken over to split up all the hard work she did alone. I got her some flowers, but she truly deserved much more, and I feel bad that we didn't do more to show her appreciation. I even only remembered the flowers because my friend had mentioned prior to that how when her child's school music teacher retired, no one really said or did much to celebrate it. I had actually coached for most of the year, and it seems like it will be the case again this year. I would say I enjoy it, but I would rather someone else do it. There were two months last year that another mom coached, and I was really thankful for the break. Our last sport of the year was soccer. Lucas improved from the previous year and got to be goalie a couple of times and did great.
At church we had a discipleship group potluck that was pretty huge and there was a ton of food. I brought a brunch casserole and some black bottom cupcakes that were leftover from the homeschool end-of-year picnic the day before. We sat with three men, and we went around the table talking about what encouraged us about the person next to us in the groups we were in.
A couple from church also hosted a pre-summer barbecue which was really wonderful. The wife's father was out there grilling. Lucas came with us, but the other kids just wanted to play video games, instead of outdoor games, so he ended up just eating and waiting around for us. I have an indoor grill from my Pampered Chef days that I used to make some food for Memorial Day. I haven't made big meals as much lately, but felt I should that day.
I took the boys to see Thunderbolts, which I liked. It was a little dark, but also covered themes in a way I hadn't see before in an MCU film (and I've seen almost all of them). The boys liked it. None of them were the original main characters, more like outcasts, but being together they had some form of community. And that's something we don't often realize how much we need. It's hard to come by for today's younger generations. I'm thankful for the communities and circles we do have. For myself personally, I sometimes think I don't deserve my closest friends, but we've stuck by each other through thick and thin.
On a side note, I participated in an AI study at Facebook. I received at $100 gift card, but my primary motivation was to inquire about getting my old account back. But sadly there wasn't anything the AI dept could do.
