Freshman Orientation

         I should've taken pictures.  I know Cody would not have appreciated it, but Kim would have insisted.  I thought I'd better be as low key as possible, for Cody's sake.

         We spent 5 hours at Cienega today, preparing for Cody's first day of classes at high school tomorrow.  I tried to pay attention, but had way too much coffee coursing through my veins...I needed to get up and run!  My friends, Monique and Joe, who had given me a ride, sensed this and came up with a plan to escape...we snuck out of the auditorium and took our own tour of the campus...Cody, meanwhile, was being escourted from class to class, so that he would have his bearings for tomorrow.  He did great.

          So many high school memories came flooding back...we had no orientation.  We walked to school our first day and figured it out, together.  I remembered the classes we had together, meeting in the hallways, going to play frisbee in the parkway, waiting to walk home. Gym class (we did NOT call it P.E.), was so fun, especially swimming. And a lot of our teachers actively rooted for us as a couple.  Except the principal, Mr. Stein.  He did not like any P.D.A. which took me until I was a senior to figure out meant public display of affection.  He'd come hollering down the hallway "NO PDA!!".  I wondered who Cody's 'Kimmy' would be today, as I spied him across the way talking to some young ladies...He's grown so much, his face looking more and more like a man's.  He's ready to go, confident...I'm so excited for him.

       Afterward, I dropped Cody at the skate park, where he rode for hours with his friends (David and Brendon came with their new buzz cuts!).

       The little bambini have had a pretty good first week in school - again, their teachers making a big difference!  I'm told that some folks cannot read the comments left by readers (and thank you for all of you who do leave comments!!!), Ami Bunch left his one today, and I felt it embodies how a) Tonio continues to work through the loss of his Mama and b) the loving support these children receive at Cottonwood (thanks so much Ami!):

       

Yay for the angel tree! As I was taking my PM kinders on a tour around school this afternoon, our last stop being the restrooms by Kim's Garden, I noticed Tonio there by himself, checking out all the flowers, bugs and yes, even black widow spider eggs (and consequently, the spider which hatched them), ....He seemed kind of forlorn, so we chatted about "mama" for a few minutes and he and I pulled some weeds while my class got drinks. I'd be lying if I said it didn't tug at my heart...and yet, he smiles on. And I love that he visits the garden. I love that the garden is a constant reminder of Kim. :)

         Tonio told me about this experience himself this evening and you could hear the appreciation in his voice, as he told me he began the project by himself, then, Mrs. Bunch came and helped...

          Other random things...I stumbled across our Pink Floyd, Dark Side of the Moon CD today, it startled me.  I hadn't realized it had been misplaced, until I found it, hidden away - Kim and I got a lot of mileage out of this CD back in the day.  Autumn came home saying her new music teacher was talking about some great guitar player from the '60's named Jimi.  I scoffed.  He was innovative, I guess, but, in my opinion, could not stack up to Jimmy Page, Keith Richards, Eric Clapton or David Gilmour, of Pink Floyd...then I found the CD and popped it in to show her - 'Time', one of his greatest guitar efforts. And the lyrics, I'd always sing them to her (well, I can't sing, but I wanted to!):

Ticking away the moments that make up a dull day
You fritter and waste the hours in an off-hand way
Kicking around on a piece of ground in your home town

Waiting for someone or something to show you the way
Tired of lying in the sunshine staying home to watch the rain
You are young and life is long and there is time to kill today

And then the one day you find ten years have got behind you
No one told you when to run, you missed the starting gun
And you run and you run to catch up with the sun, but it's sinking
And racing around to come up behind you again
The sun is the same in the relative way, but you're older
And shorter of breath and one day closer to death

Every year is getting shorter, never seem to find the time
Plans that either come to naught or half a page of scribbled lines
Hanging on in quiet desparation is the English way
The time is gone the song is over, thought I'd something more to say

I guess a lot of this ended up catching up to me, without me even knowing it...

David Gilmour is one of my all time favorite guitarists.  Kim had surprised me, one year, for my birthday, with tickets to one of his solo tours, back in 1984.  Third row center.  I had broken my hand in a fight just a night or two prior and she was so mad at me - I thought, perhaps, I had finally overstepped my bounds.  But there she was, to pick me back up, lovingly...she had her work cut out for her.  She ended up driving us to the show, which was fantastic.

Further, around 7, out of fruit and the bambini clamoring for some, we drove to Sunflower market to stock back up (and ran into Lydia Crain, Rincon Vista principal, where Kimmy worked and one of the nicest people I know!).  And I found this"

 At last...

         I sat in the third floor waiting room one late evening, waiting for the damn phone to ring.  It was to be Kimmy's final surgery.  I hated that phone.  And, that waiting room was my personal hell, my chamber of horrors.  But I had no choice.  And I'm not complaining about being there - there was no where else I'd be - I love Kimmy, I needed to be there, wanted to be there - it's just that, that waiting room...I cannot write enough to describe the feeling, the coldness, and in the end, the emptiness that I gained there...

          Anyway, that final surgery, where they were helping relieve the swelling in Kim's legs, I resolved that I would not answer the phone...so when it rang, another 'waiter' picked it up and called my name...I reluctantly, yet hopefully, accepted the receiver from her outstretched hand...and I heard Kimmy's soft, sweet voice whisper to me"David.  Write this down.  Infinium"  "What is that?  A treatment?  A CURE??"  I begged.  "No", she giggled, "A beer."  A beer.  Her waking words to me.  A beer.  She wakes thinking not of herself, or her condition, but to tell me about a beer that I might enjoy, that I have to try.  Dammit Kimmy!!  She was so sweet. 

           Her anathesiolgist told me the rest of the story later.  Kim amazed him.  As he was putting her under, he commented to another Dr. that he couldn't wait to get home to pop open a bottle of Infinium by Sam Adams.  Kim, drifting, asked him "is it good?".  "The best" he told her.  "You have to tell my husband about it". she replied, slipping away.  He told me that conversations held while putting patients under are rarely, if ever recalled.  Yet, when Kim was coming back up, it was the first thing she said to him "was that beer you mentioned called Infinium?".  He was amazed!

          "But Kimmy, are you allright?  How did the procedure go?"  I asked desparately.  "I'm fine David, I'm fine."

            I almost did not find it.  The little bambini and I headed directly for the beer section.  My friend, Manny, told me Sunflower did indeed carry it - he looked it up on an app for me.  But I couldn't see it.  The cashier asked if I found everything - and I finally said 'no' and told him the story.  He immediately went to the cooler and grabbed a the large bottle pictured above.  He was the most knowledgeable beer guy I've ever met.

             And it is good.  Kim knew.  She knew I'd like it, and thought of me.  "Write it down"  and I did.  It took 8 months to find it, bitter sweet.  She always looked out for me.

              And for the bambini...I can hear her now "I'm so proud of my big high schooler!"...

                             Love,
                                    Dave

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V-XNr5neJ30&NR=1