Class of 2017

Ruby has been looking beyond graduation day to the rest of her life for a long time. There were parts of high school that she hated, IE, being stuck in high school. There were parts that she loved, like Dance Company, being with Golda the first year, having friends, being a TA for two of her favorite teachers, being in two of Mr. Oram's AP classes, ballet, being Dance Company president, going on trips.

Ruby is very smart, and, as I always tell her, she's good at taking tests. She studies, but she doesn't love it. It's agony, in fact. Nevertheless, she took three AP tests (still waiting for results on two of them, passed the first) and graduated with High Honors. Of course she did! Her GPA was 3.8 and she took many of the tough classes.

This beautiful lei was given to Ruby by her friend Sofia Vasquez's parents. Sofia died in a car accident last year, right after school ended. It was just devastating. I loved sweet Sofia. I still cry about her death all the time, and I'm sure her many friends and family members do, too. All of Sofia's friends received a lei for graduation from the Vasquez family. Ruby wore it with love and gratitude. I can't imagine the grief and sorrow Sofia's family was feeling as these beautiful young people graduated. I was so honored that Ruby was included in their special tribute to Sofia. It put such a perspective on the day.

Our cheering section. Tziporah wasn't impressed with the ceremony. She said, "What are we doing here? Ruby isn't even doing anything!" Ha ha. True. But it's a fun closing ceremony.

I am hideous. That face! Oh my gosh. Sometimes I just wonder.

The sun was bright

Bentley Fife and Ruby, friends since kindergarten.

Polynesians have way more fun. I'm actually jealous. This family had this backdrop set up for pictures and a boom box blaring music. A big guy was sitting on the ground draped to the eyebrows with leis, and the graduate was equally adorned. The entire extended family was posing, from tiny baby to grandparents.

These are from Ruby's 100th day of second grade. Her answers are so funny. She could eat 100 "blackened salmon," But she could never eat 100 slugs.

She wished she had 100 friends, but she woudn't want 100 husbands!

She's going to be pretty when she's 100 years old!

This is my favorite. If I had 100 dollars, I would..."Give it to a charity or the orphanage maybe both. Because they need money too and the orphanage is verry poor."

This is Ruby. She has a generous heart. When people ask me why Ruby decided to go to Ghana as a volunteer to teach music, I just think it makes sense. It wasn't a sudden decision. She was always destined for volunteer work. She has been researching different volunteer options since she was in junior high.  I found out recently that she's been taking one cold shower a week for years, "in case she ever lives in a third world country." Oh, Ruby! She's prepared for anything.  I don't want Ruby to leave, because I'll miss her fiercely, but I just can't wait for her to get out there and be free!

Repertory Dance Theater Performance

Dance Company performed in a showcase with Repertory Dance Theater at the Rose Wagner. It was their very, very last performance together. The dance was beautiful. Ruby is so at the top of her modern dance game, it's hard to see it end. I love her dance friends, too. It sure is rewarding to watch them, especially in such a cool setting with all these professionals.

Ruby is pretty idolized.

Tziporah was isnpired after the show and got on the stage to do a little interpretive dance. It was in the black box, so the stage is right there. Very intimate venue. I wish Freestone could have seen it. He was right down the street, at ballet, like he always is. Araceli had ballet too.

So many endings this time of year with our senior, but so many beginnings on the horizon.

Dance Company Winter Concert

Friday was the Dance Company Winter Concert.  It's an all-day workshop involving four schools with performances in the morning and at night, with classes in between.  This year, Davis High hosted it, so the girls didn't have to travel except for one rehearsal last week at Ben Lomond.

In the afternoon that day, Ruby texted me, "If you want, you could bring me one of Michelle's cookies."  (The night before, Michelle Fitz had dropped off a plate of the coveted goodies so that the Chinese girls could experience America properly!)

I rushed to the school to find the girls in the dark auditorium watching some staging.  Ruby took the time to sit by me and whisper for a few minutes.  Our conversation was mostly about chocolate chip cookies.  How good they are, how it defies all reason, and how comforting it is to receive them. We marveled at my friends' generosity and goodness, and how all of that is exemplified in one of Michelle's cookies. 

Every moment with Ruby is burnished by the knowledge that she is leaving soon.  I would bring her a cookie and sit with her every single day if I could.  When I lived for a semester in Paris in 9th grade, chocolate chip cookies were what I missed most about home.  Every Sunday evening, Nana Ruby had her cookies set out for us, in a shirt box from ZCMI, the layers separated by wax paper.  How I depended on those cookies!  In Paris, I periodically would schlepp clear across town to Les Halles where there was a Laura Todd cookie store, similar to Mrs. Field's.  I'd breathe in the baking smell and think of my family.

I don't know what Ruby will think of when she's away from home, but I do know that I'll remember that moment in the auditorium, because it represents so many moments.  A whole childhood of dance and music and cookies.  That night, as I watched the girls dance, I tried not to think of all their past performances.  I definitely tried not to picture their chubby 8-year-old legs in my class, some of them, adding their first plies and tendus to their repertoire.  I avoided remembering back to the moment we saw the first Dance Company list that Ruby was on.


I just basked in the moment of beauty and gave thanks for all of it.

Dance Company

Ruby is Dance Company president this year, and she is loving it.  So by extension, the rest of us are loving it, too.  I got to be the first mom to host the Friday lunch.  Except this one was on a Wednesday because of an assembly.  Ruby and I planned to make Elmeda's to-die-for chicken roll-ups, but who am I kidding?  That's a two-day project and I had exactly one morning.  I called my mom and said, "I need you to talk me down from making chicken roll-ups for Dance Company."  She was successful, and helped me come up with Plan B.  It was lovely and the girls were thrilled.  The gasps of delight when they came in and the thank-yous when they left were proof of their satisfaction.

My mom is the best at jumping into the fray.  She is available for any type of help, anytime.  I could not do anything without her, from hosting lunch to raising 7 kids.  And by the way, this was all happening during a bout with cancer and major surgery.  Everything is fine.  But everything was not fine for a few weeks there.  Can you tell by this picture?  Of course not!  Coco looks glamorous and confident, at all times.

Unlike me!  I laugh so hard at this picture.  Look at my hair!  And I wasn't even facing cancer and surgery.  All I was facing was picking up a stack of David's Pizzas!  Rest assured, I was beautiful on the inside.  Tee hee.  And that's Kim King, the teacher we love, who mentors all these bright young dancers.

I love this group, especially Ruby, who is holding up Tizzy so she can be in the picture.  Ruby always, always sacrifices herself for others.  It's in her nature.  She has the beauty on the inside AND the outside.

Next up, the Homecoming parade.  It lasts for 20 minutes, but it's packed with excitement, from the drumline at the front to the last trailing stream of confetti at the end.  I took Ptolemy and he got an enormous amount of candy.  Freestone went with Frank.  It was a good intro to American high school life.

The next day, I cooked 40 pounds of pulled pork and set up the tailgating party for Dance Company.  It sounds like a lot, but it was super, super easy because all the other parents go above and beyond, and the girls plan the whole thing.  I just showed up with my assignment and my people.  Except for Ruby, who was at her "day date" for Homecoming.  It was funny and sad that she had to miss the tailgate.  It was the best one we've ever had!  Oh well.  She had fun, and went to the game afterward.  In fact, the whole family went to the game except Tizzy, Xanthe and me.  We went to Bennion Crafts and relaxed at home all night.  It was so nice to be able to go home and take off my shoes and not have a zillion people to drive around or put to bed.  A perfect end to one of those fall days that you wish would last forever.

Big eyeball face right here.

Celi and her friend Emily

My two boys.

Things don't slow down, do they?  The Davis High Performing Arts Spectacular was the next weekend.  I love this thing.  It's so fun to see all the high school kids do their thing.  Even the stage crew is made up of students.  The are impressive.  This year was especially fun for us, because Ruby choreographed one of the pieces that Dance Company did.  It was a jazz piece that was awesome.  I would have been happy sitting there watching it over and over.

Bruce and Marlene, our superfans!

Throwback to '89

Friday was a hectic day.  And I mean, not just the regular stuff.  Scott and I bought a new car, and while we were signing the papers, the Paris attacks were happening.  We were getting updates from Trajan and my mom, as well as dozens of texts asking if our family members were safe.  We were the easiest car customers ever.  We basically had time to race to the dealership, point to the car we wanted, look under the hood and pretend to know stuff, and promise to return two hours later on the way to guitar to claim our new ride.

Rand's Auto was incredibly efficient, and also understanding when I kept gasping and tearing up whilst signing the paperwork, as whatsapps kept coming in like this one:  "They're shooting the hostages one by one."  I couldn't even wrap my head around the juxtaposition of the mayhem and tragedy, and the spotless new car I was driving off the lot alone, Scott and Ruby having gone to her lesson.

Knowing my family was safe, I had to put aside the ongoing events in Paris as I picked up Freestone at ballet.  He didn't recognize me in the new car!  I wanted it to be fun and exciting for the kids, even as my heart was broken for the hostages that had just been shot.  I dropped Freestone off at his campout with his sleeping bag and took Xanthe and Jade to their Chinese playgroup.  On our old van, the rear passenger door doesn't open, and if it does, it won't close, and if it closes, it still thinks it's open, so a buzzer continuously whines.  When Xanthe went to get in the new car, she clarified, "Does this door open?  Which doors open?"  Sad!  But not so sad.  Old cars are the least of people's problems, and I've been happy to drive my Odyssey.  It's a member of the family.  But it's kinda gotten like Mephisto, the cat I grew up with.  At 18 years old, Mephisto was blind, deaf, incontinent, weighed two pounds, and was schizophrenic about whether he wanted to be petted or take a bite out of your hand.  That kind of member of the family.  I never knew when the van was going to come up with a new flashing warning light or another door that refused to close.

At the end of this nightmare/celebratory day loomed an island of respite:  Mike and Sarah hosted a long-overdue gathering of our high school friends.  These are people I have spent countless hours with, mostly doing absolutely nothing.  Some of them are people whom I know so well, I remember exactly what their rooster tail looked like in the school picture in 3rd grade, or the purse they were carrying when the Challenger space shuttle blew up in 1986.  We've sneaked off to concerts together in Rome and been lost in the rain in Florence.  We cried together on the last day of high school.  We survived missions and college and dating and bottle rockets.  Some of these friends, of course, were brought into the fold through marriage, and yet I feel as bonded to them as if they had been there the whole time.

These are my people.  And Friday, I needed my people.  I looked around at these friends and just felt totally at peace.  We all made it!  We're old enough that we don't care what people think, and young enough that the conversation isn't yet all about our health problems.  We've arrived!  These people are beautiful in every way, and if they weren't, I'd never know it because I love them so much.  Thanks for hosting, Scheullers.  It was perfect.

Revenge of the Shoulder Pads

Scott and I took a couple of our kids to the Lang Lang performance with the Utah Symphony.  It was a black tie affair, so we trotted out Scott's tux and my beautiful Albert Nipon prom dress from 1989.  Oh, the humanity!  Take a look at these shoulder pads!  We were obviously serious when we wore these, but I can't imagine how we could have been.  My beloved prom dress was literally unwearable.  Even after I cut out the shoulder pads, the supporting fabric was enough to get me airborne if I turned to quickly.  Even Scott's tux was outfitted with shoulder pads, and the sleeves came down past his wrists.  Yet we thought we were such hot stuff back in the day.

Scott sent me a text the next day:  "I'm leaving you.  I thought I was marrying a woman with bigger shoulders.  False advertising."  Now I get why we didn't hear much about "modesty" in 1989.  Girls - and boys! - would never have exposed their shoulders, as skinny and narrow as they were.  I'm sure the narrow-shouldered among us were at the very bottom of the food chain.  If that was the case, then I must have been waaaay at the top, at least at Prom.