god laughs

Making God laugh.

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Pardon this interruption in the middle of the London recap, but I heard the best story today.

For the past two months I’ve been training to take over duties for a coworker while she’s out on maternity leave. We are kindred souls in that she’s a details person and a planner just like me, though she might take organization and scheduling to a whole new level. In the middle of our training sessions, we’d stop to chat about her daughter-to-be, Kayla, and all the cute gifts and clothes she’d just received at  another baby shower. As the due date approached, the nursery was painted lavender, the toys were cataloged and the pink onesies and polka dot sundresses were arranged in the closet … everything in place to await Kayla’s arrival.

I was a little worried that my coworker would go into labor while I was in London, but Kayla decided to be late. She was born on Wednesday night, which is joyous news … except that she is a boy, and her name is Michael. With all of our prenatal technology in 2012, including multiple exams and ultrasounds — even in 3-D! — it turns out that we can still be surprised in life.

My mom always says that if you want to make God laugh, go ahead and make your own plans. Well, I think he got a big belly rumbler out of this one.

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Over my dead body.

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I’m nearing the end of another one of those crazy periods in life, full of stress and errands and little sleep. Which, with the dust storm and the new job and some unexpected medical issues of Oliver’s, is probably understandable. (Oh, how quickly I forgot those fleeting days of retirement.) And last weekend was the culmination, the prime reason I had cleaned for weeks and shopped and chewed all my fingernails off.  I graduated from business school.

My family descended on my barely-cleaned home to witness my walking across a stage in a cap and gown one more time and to celebrate such an accomplishment. It was three and a half long, yet still quick, years in the making, and during the weekend I reflected often on the friends I’d made, the classes and people who made me want to pull my hair out, the lessons I’d learned, those stressful times where I’d barely known my own name, my South Africa trip, and ultimately all the fun I’d had. It’s the end of an era, which is always bittersweet.

The best news is that, while it was unnaturally hot in early May, it was my first graduation ceremony ever that wasn’t affected by rain. At my high school graduation, the downpour on the coliseum’s tin roof completely drowned out all the speakers. And the douse of big, fat rain over the outdoor stadium before college graduation just made everyone mad and uncomfortable. So, it was a miracle that we had a clear, if a bit steamy, day this time. And all the scheduling went smoothly — everyone arrived on time and was able to secure decent seating, I didn’t trip over my robe or otherwise embarrass myself and dinner was a big hit.
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