Graduation Today

The Doodle (aka my daughter Laura) graduated today with a 2nd degree in Nursing from Samford University.  I’m so proud I could POP.  POP I tell you.  When she graduated from University Of Alabama a few years back with her first degree, you kind of sit back and think… ok what next?  She began talking about nursing, and then began this two and a half year journey that finished today.  Remember when she first drove off after high school?

I have to tell you — I didn’t realize I was going to feel so…. sad!  Don’t get me wrong.. I’m ecstatic she graduated and even spoke at pinning ceremony.  A high honor for sure.   Once again…. so proud I could POP! See?!!! I just popped.  Literally.

I just dropped Jennie off — my girlfriend who accompanied me for the graduating festivities including the pinning on Friday and graduation today.  It hit me like a brick wall.  Her apartment in Birmingham will not be hers any longer.  She’s accepted a job in Atlanta at Children’s Healthcare which is a BIG DEAL.  She’ll be in NICU residency.   I can’t even imagine.  (popping again)

She’s moving out of her apartment in a week.   Her nest in Birmingham.  Where she’s studied hard, and ate sushi and lived for years now.   She’s packing up to move back up to Atlanta.  Her beau is there who I adore,  Lee.  I’m in Atlanta too where of course I’ll see her.  I have homes in both Birmingham and Atlanta for business.

I can’t explain this sadness.  It came out of left field.   It makes me sad to know her apartment will not be hers any longer.   She’s extremely ocd about being organized.  Everything in it’s place.   Her closet is just so – from shoes to dresses.  Her backpack always full of books.  Her class schedule and her planner.   Her couch where she would sit for hours and regroup from a hard exam or study or just sleep.

I’m excited for her – gosh I love her so very much.  I’m so proud of the smart, beautiful articulate driven woman she’s become.   She’s not a little girl, or even a college student any longer.   I’m biting my tongue begging her to start a master program or…. anything.  She’ll be working now.  No more Spring Breaks.  No more can you bring me Chick fil A between classes.  Can you get me Real and Rosemary I’m exhausted from studying.   I’ve named her Nurse Doodle which I think she secretly likes.  #nursedoodle I teased I would get her lab coat inscribed.   She cringed but smiled.

I’m surprised by my reaction – it got worse the closer I got home.  Thinking about her empty apartment.  That’s what made all of this so real.  I’m literally sitting here crying.   Oh good grief.  I think this is normal.  Right?!  It’s a huge passage.  She’s turned the corner.   She’s all grown up ‘really’ this time.   Now on to her making her life her own.

Ok.   I feel better now.   I just needed to cry it out.

I really am so very very proud of her.   Every test was a nail-biter.  Every new semester harder than the one before.  Then actually thinking about employment which she gained immediately before even graduating!!  yes — I’m EXTERMELY proud of this girl.  :::::beaming:::::::

She wanted to celebrate last night at Chez Fon Fon we had a blast!!! Long wait which is normal especially for a Friday evening.   She glowed.  She had just been pinned.  Such an accomplishment.   We toasted Nurse Doodle!  Today was actual graduation.  Celebrating all around!!! Cheers and woots!!!

Adulting is hard sometimes.  Actually many times.   Smiling again.

Humor me.  Here’s all of these brilliant youngsters walking in to be pinned

This is the BEST PART — Laura Kennedy Davis speaking at pinning ceremony

This is graduation from Samford today.  Skip up to 1:18 where she is announced.   What a day!!!

*Make sure you follow my blog to see what’s going on in #kimysworld 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Merry Christmas Ya’ll! 2017

I just HAD to share my 1972 picture with Santa.   Rich’s downtown Atlanta — and yes the Pink Pig was of course ridden in fear.  

I was skeptical of Santa at this point… much to my mother’s mortified face as I looked at his beard and taped on white felt eyebrows.  I think the camera caught this too.  You think?  I remember thinking ‘Dude….I don’t think that beard is real’ which I completely voiced to my parents in the car on the ride home.  I loved that dress too.  The Peter Pan collar with three buttons. The French cuff sleeves (I had no clue what French cuff sleeves were at 7 but I obviously loved it even then!).

Christmas changes for everyone through the years.   I do believe in the spirit of the season.   Whatever you celebrate.   Make it magical.  Find your Christmas Cheer for everyone to see and hear! (I got that from the movie ELF which is ONE of my favorite holiday movies…. exactly).

From my home to yours –  I hope magical moments are abundant… and if they aren’t…MAKE SOME!

xxoo Kimy

2 weeks

I have a new friend who I met about a year ago.   She’s a ‘friend of a friend’ and I rather like her quite a bit.   She’s very artsy / theater type personality… she’s had quite the life — she’s been on a soap opera in the early 90’s (One Life to Live which is what my mother watched).   She’s about 6 years older than I am… so shes in her middle 50s…  she’s lived in California – to NYC.  She’s traveled the world.  Met very interesting people.  Romance… friends… travel…..  A trustifarian of sorts to be exact.   She’s dabbled in local theater…  I met her of all places as we gathered around a bond fire at a Christmas tree lot in Mountain Brook Al.  Where all the cool cats hang obviously.    We continued to cross paths along the year at First Tuesday Cocktail Club (FTCC) .

And then……  after seeing her this December (it’s now Feb)….  I have been notified that she got married this past weekend.  I completely smiled when I learned this…. the flip side to that is that she’s dying.  She’s been given 2 weeks to live.    TWO WEEKS.   Trying to wrap my mind around this news  I received another text this evening (a week shy of two weeks) that the end is near. She’s been moved to hospice.  Pain management.  Cancer.     I sit shaking my head thinking this is not fair.  AT ALL.   I wish to make a complaint.  Why. How.  Scared.  Sad.  Angry.  Disbelief.  Acceptance.   Cheers to you sweet friend – as you journey on to parts unknown.   Look for me…. help me when my time comes.  For I will be scared and afraid.   I’ll look for you.  In the stars.  Journey on.  Journey on.

“In the blink of an eye…. I never got to say goodbye… Like a shooting star across the room you were gone far too soon.”

Cocktails in your PJ’s – woot!

It’s been a lazy sort of Sunday- in your pjs all kind of day.  It is what it is.

My neighbor, friend and mischief-maker popped me a text to ask if I had time for one cocktail. I answered back ‘sure — if I can come in pjs’ and bra-less and oh by the way is there popcorn?’ Trader Joe’s white cheddar popcorn to be exact.  Amen.

I remember when I moved into this quirky little Historic District I’ve called home for a decade and a half of seeing neighbors at various times of the eve walking up or down or to someone else’s home — in various forms of pjs carrying cocktail in hand.  It was a magical sort of sight to behold.  All of these oddities of course made me feel right at home.

As I searched for some type of shoe to wear to my neighbor’s home (somehow one croc was under the sofa I’m almost positive Olive had something to do with this) I smiled thinking how wonderful it is to head for cocktails in your pjs.  It’s also somewhat like going to the grocery store at 8am on a Saturday in your pj’s, dark sunglasses and a baseball cap (as if the baseball cap and dark shades will completely hide your identity as everyone nods to you and says hi because they too are in the same garb).  All for vanilla creamer.  Which is most important when you realize you are out.  And too sleepy to think about changing thus a baseball cap and dark sunglasses will suffice long enough to run in, grab said vanilla creamer and back home before you can blink.

I’m fairly certain it all boils down to being a bit silly.  And how fun that is.  I’m quite certain that’s what this is all about.

Alas — you’ve never quite fully lived (in my book) – until you’ve headed to a neighbor’s home – in pjs – to have cocktails.