They Find Me, I Tell You!

This is always a busy time of year. Not just the holidays. We have Genius's birthday, and then Hick's birthday, and we also had Genius's graduation over the weekend.

On the two-hour drive to commencement, Hick took time out from sweaving to converse with me about this milestone in Genius's life. We discussed how my mom was still with us when he started college, and how she wanted a copy of his schedule and a map of campus, so she could think about what he was doing during the day. As we drove into College Town, we argued over which dorm Genius lived in freshman year, and which one he was an RA in the following year. We knew which was which, but we couldn't decide on the name for each building. Hick pointed out the Chinese restaurant that Genius used to walk to, that had resulted in my mom sending him $6 a week for the special. A tradition I continued for her after her passing.

We got there at 2:00 for the 3:30 commencement, and found parking with ease in the lot Genius had recommended. Almost had a kerfuffle with a lady with a cane over saved seats in the auditorium. Just like movie theater seating, when you get there an hour early and then, as the preview are rolling, an usher asks you to move over so latecomers can waltz in and take your chosen seats...the announcer kept reminding people that seats could not be saved. As you might imagine, people who had arrived two hours before the ceremony were not receptive. We only had two seats saved, and that cane lady wanted six. She had to make do with five, and was not happy. As it was, HOS had to hold his 7-year-old son on his lap for the two-hour ceremony, because we just had seats for him and his wife.

Anyhoo...sitting there with Hick, waiting the last hour for it to start, I mentioned that my mom would have probably ridden out there to see Genius graduate. "Oh, yeah," said Hick. "You couldn't have kept her from it. She would have been so proud of him."

Poor Hick. He's on the road again today. And it's his birthday. He spent Friday and Saturday driving to College Town, and Sunday driving down to Joplin to meet up with The Pony halfway from Norman, Oklahoma, so HOS could drive him partway so as not to fall asleep like the time he crashed his car and could have perished. Then Hick and HOS picked up the truck loaded with Genius's apartment furniture that he doesn't want, to bring it home. NOW, in the fourth day of his travels, Hick is on the road to Kansas City with Genius, to haul stuff to his new apartment.

We'll celebrate Hick's birthday tomorrow. While I was in town Sunday, picking up some of The Pony's favorite foods before his evening arrival, I figured I might as well look for a birthday card for him to give Hick. The Pony knows it's his birthday, but with finals all week, and packing for the trip home, and getting up at the crack of dawn to leave on this journey...I was pretty sure he hadn't gotten a card yet. He's a bit of a procrastinator like me.

I was looking at the rack of cards in Country Mart, because I wasn't going all the way to Walmart today. I've still got Christmas preparations to do. I looked at the birthday section, but didn't see anything that grabbed me. So I moved down toward the section that said HUMOR. Next to it, something caught my eye.

See it there? Just daring me to notice it?

I didn't get it, because it wasn't the kind of birthday card The Pony would have given Hick. And it wasn't particularly humorous, instead having a message about blessings. But you can bet I'm going to show Hick the picture.

I'm pretty sure that if mom was able, she would wish Hick a happy birthday.