The Graduate!

Well, he did it!

Benjamin Strait is now a college graduate! Four years at Georgia College & State University!

He graduated Cum Laude, which meant he had a grade point average of 3.60 or higher! Only three students in Computer Science graduated Cum Laude or better, and he was one of them!

It wasn't all peaches and cream. Like other students, he went through the pandemic, when many classes were online and many student activities were curtailed. Nevertheless, he developed many friendships in college and online through his Dungeons and Dragons group.  He visited with one of his friends, Eddie, in Sweden for about a month. So Benjamin is now more well-traveled than his parents. He made other friends while in Sweden, and I know he'll want to go back.

Not every Professor was charming or helpful, but Benjamin learned to adjust to different personalities and do his best.

He was an active participant in Georgia College Episcopal Campus Ministry.  It helped provide camaraderie and spiritual guidance.

Benjamin will start his internship with Warner Robins Air Force Base this summer. After that, it could develop into a full-time job.

Yes, Warner Robins seems far away, but it is a distance we've grown used to. It doesn't seem quite so bad as my oldest son is in California, and my middle son is in New York.

Of course, there's nothing to say for sure that Benjamin will settle in Warner Robins. Mom and Dad will just have to handle it when that day comes.

Congratulations, Benjamin! We love you so very much!

 

Emergency Sausage Pie Delivery!

Emergency!

Call 9-1-Parents! 

Benjamin starts finals week ON HIS BIRTHDAY!

What are parents to do?

Every Christmas morning, He gets his favorite food all year - sausage pie made with sausage and cream cheese, with crescent roll sheets on top and bottom.

But this year, we thought we would surprise him early.

We got up at 4:30 in the morning, and after some food prep, were on our way to Milledgeville joust before 6.  A little after 9, we were parked outside of his dorm.

Mom called him no answer.  Dad texted him.  No answer.

Then, after answering my text, he called his Mom.

Mom:  Would you like sausage pie this morning?

Benjamin: uhhhhh....yes?

Mom:  Would you meet us at the dorm's front door and let us in?

Benjamin:  uhhhhh...ok?

A very shocked young man let us in.  We used a dorm kitchen facility to finish the sausage pie, and also had a big container of his favorite brownies.  We even brought a bottle of mustard, because what is sausage pie without a little mustard?

We spent some time together, walking around campus, getting some coffee at his favorite coffee place, Blackbird Coffee.  Dad & son even visited a shop that had some comic books.  It had a few books, but not many.  Milledgeville's biggest lack is that it does not have a decent bookstore near campus.

We even found Santa!  Thankfully, it wasn't the MAGA Santa that roamed the Mall and Blackshear Elementary.  Yes, we had a Santa here that thought it would be cool to wear a Trump hat.  I'm pretty sure that had Benjamin been in elementary school, he would have knocked that hat right off that fool. 

It was a brief visit, but a pleasant and genuine surprise for Benjamin.


In just another day or two, Benjamin will be home for Christmas Break.  Will we still have sausage pie on Christmas morning? 

Oh, you bet your sweet crescent roll we will!

Double the Choir Weekend!

Alison, her mother, and I, went to Milledgeville this weekend to visit with Benjamin, and experience his double choir weekend!

First up, we heard him in the University Chorus, where they sang songs related to Shakespeare, the lyrics coming from different Shakespeare plays.

The next day, we heard him in the church choir of St. Stephen's Episcopal Church.  We are so happy that Benjamin's faith journey continues while in college.  Not every college student, even if they are religious, continues on their own to the extent that Benjamin is.  He also belongs to an Episcopal Youth Group.  Only a few of their members attend St. Stephen's, the Episcopal church closest to campus.  Some of those who don't may be commuting students who attend at home.

No experience, no individual is perfect, so I don't mean to pedestalize Benjamin.

Nevertheless, I am very proud of him and the way he has taken to college.  He is doing well academically and socially.  He is participating in more extra-curriculars than he even did in high school.

Bravo, Benjamin!  You are off to a sensational start!

The Selfie Master's Monday Musings

Oh, yeah!

Ain't nobody can do selfies the way I can do selfies.

It was our annual trip to watch our favorite team, Atlanta United, at Mercedes Benz Stadium (don't get me started about how disgusted I am to have stadiums named after corporations - I'm just going to overlook it this time).

It was a great game, although it took the full ninety minutes for United to kick it into high gear, finally winning 3 - 1.  Our star player, Josef Martinez, was hurt, and we await word on the extent of his injury but are praying for the best outcome.

The best thing about Atlanta United games is that it is not just a game, it's like being invited to a big party.  A large, diverse crowd, watches a diverse group of talented players engage in non-stop action from beginning to end.  We are on our feet, virtually the entire game.  There are no breaks in the action, no commercials, just movement, and excitement.

We started the weekend by picking up Benjamin from Georgia College.  I can't begin to tell you enough good things about how well Benjamin fits into college there.  Multiple organizations, achieving in his classes, many friends, loving the dorm and the Maxx (college cafeteria).  Alison and I couldn't be prouder of him. 

We spent time with Doug & Paige.  They are working hard at a sustainable home.  They have solar panels and an extensive home garden.  They have bees for honey, and chickens for eggs, and bunnies for...uh...poop (fertilizer) and hair (clothing?).  All this in a suburban Atlanta neighborhood.

The food was awesome over the weekend, including greek food from Milledgeville's Metropolitan Cafe, and burgers/sandwiches.salads from Brookhaven's best burger place, Lucky Dog.  But the best was delicious homemade meals from Paige, including pancakes, banana muffins, and three different kinds of calzone!

We also got to a new antique mall, where I picked up nine new record albums (new to me), from great artists including Linda Ronstadt, Loretta Lynn, Dolly Parton, and Olivia Newton-John!  The mall was fun but somewhat spoiled by a prominent rack of Trump 2020 hats.  I wanted to ask when they would be getting in the Warren 2020 hats, but alas, I lacked courage.

Our bestiary was well-covered, thanks to our friend, Trent Dixon, coming in and watching our pets for us.  He did an excellent job, and we much appreciate it!  It helped ensure that our trip away was stress-free for our dogs.  Our kitty, Skitty, barely noticed.

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Now I'm back, and I am taking advantage of my semi-retired status and staying home.  I have to re-review lines from the play (starting Double Hell weeks with a rehearsal almost every night for the next two weeks - performances begin on Thursday, October 3rd!).

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With so much good news, don't get me started on the Wolverines. Michigan is not mighty this year.  Maybe they'll improve as the year progresses, but right now?  They look terrible.  Rutgers might be a challenge.

I miss Brady Hoke.  There.  I said it.

Seriously, I have no idea where Michigan goes from here.

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Yeah.  As usual, there are a lot of terrible things going on with Trump.  Encouraging foreign interference in our election?  "Oops!  I did it again!"

Alison, ready to watch her favorite team!

Go United!

Windy Wednesday Wanderings

Well, it's not really too windy yet.  But it may get windier as the day progresses.  Some of the extreme outer bands of Hurricane Dorian may brush us, as the now category 2 storm churns slowly past us in the Atlantic Ocean.

It may not be too bad here, except to rile up our storm sensitive dog, Cocoa Bear.  The older Cocoa Bear gets, the more she reacts to even the slightest change in barometric pressure.  She does okay when we're home, but not so well when we're not.  She bites at doorknobs, and if she can get in our bedroom, she will get in our closet and strew all of Alsion's clothes that she can reach.

As glancing as the blow we may receive, it contrasts sharply with the utter devastation that the Bahamas received.  It entered the Bahamas at Category 5, and then just stayed there for HOURS.  Pictures this morning are showing destruction on an unprecedented level.  Thank God they are not dependent on our racist President for support, and they don't have to listen to his inane smack talk.

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We were thrilled to have Benjamin back for the weekend.  He is doing so well in school, participating in his classes, joining groups,  making lots of friends. 

I would love to tell you we did something dramatic while he was here, but we did not.  We just enjoyed each other's company, and talked a lot, caught up on the TV show Battlebots, and went to church.  I am proud to say that not only has Benjamin joined the Episcopal Church near campus, he has also joined their choir!

Yes, everything at college is going very well for Benjamin.  Well, except for one thing.  And I don't feel like going into that here yet, so...

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VAPING is a horrible thing, and some don't feel like they have to restrict whom they vape around.  I guess they feel it's not as bad as smoking, and that people who don't like can just put up with it.  Even if they do it around people with asthma.

Alison and I have both heard more and more stories about how truly dangerous vaping is.  It's nicotine and other chemicals going into the bodies of our young people and even results in second-hand vaping effects.  Respiratory diseases and even lung cancer have been linked to vaping.

It is a major crisis among the young.  Vaping companies have targeted youth to promote their product, including flavored products (e.g., bubblegum and fruit loops).  They encourage them to tell parents and others that what they have are flash drives or USB devices, which their smoking devices are designed to look like.

Some parents are oblivious to this nonsense.  I guess some think "Well, at least they're not smoking."  Uhh, yes they are.  And there are as dangerous as cigarettes and even more insidious.

Young people are not comprehending the problem.  What can you do when you even majors in Exercise Science are doing it?  If they don't respect their body, who will?

Man!  Sorry!  I don't know where that tangent came from!

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Today I must concentrate on learning my lines for the play I'm in.  It's early, but I've got to do what I can.  I'm already falling behind some of the more ambitious cast members.  I have a reputation for learning my lines quickly, but it is undeserved, particularly as I age.

Three factors in line memorization -

1) I've always had the script in my hands until the director took it away.  Anyone who thinks otherwise is wrong.

2) I'm older.  Line memorization comes more slowly to me now.  I have to spend more than three times the amount of memorization time to get the same results I could twenty years ago.

3) I'm not a painter.  By that I mean I do not paint my lines, using the script as a template and saying sort of what's in the script but not precisely the words of the script.  I  learn my lines word for word, exactly as written.  Then later, if I have to adapt to what other people are saying around me, I can change as needed.  But I really like to give the line as written - it shows more respect to the playwright.

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That's all I can think of right now.

When does college football start?

Wanderingly yours,

T. M. Strait

The Birdie Flies

It's a tough time.

There are moments of worry and anxiety, moments when tears flow, when we wonder if leaving him there is the right call, what we are going to do without this boy being in our home like he has been for the last nineteen years (including womb time).  We're far from helicopter parents, but we can't help but stress about whether or not he needs our constant reminders as to what to do next.

It's a special time.

Our boy is beginning a grand new adventure, but he loves us deeply and will be returning home for holidays and other weekends.  He'll be home a whole month around the winter holidays.  Unless he gets a job that keeps him up there.  Okay, I don't want to think about that right now.

At first, it was very scary.  We got to Georgia College campus and his form room, and Benjamin seemed on edge.  He was overwhelmed by the initial paperwork, and how to handle the move in.  Even though we had canceled and been refunded for the loft that was preferred by the other roommate, they had been put up anyways.  They were pretty high up, with a shaky ladder, and we just didn't want it, nor did the other roommate, the one filling in for the one who had left for a fancier room on West Campus.

Benjamin had arrived a day early so that the next day he could be a part of the Cat Crew, a group of students that would help everyone else move in the next morning.  That first night, however, Benjamin could not get up on the loft, and we moved his mattress and bedding down so he could he sleep on the floor.

That night, we left for a hotel room nearby, while our son slept by himself on the floor.  What was going to happen to our boy?  Would he ever fit in?

When we got there the next morning, Benjamin was already on Cat Crew.  We found out that the night before, he had gotten out of his room, made friends and played video games, primarily DC's superheroes game, Injustice.  My years of training in DC lore was finally paying off!  What a proud father I am!

Our first experience with roommates and parents was a positive one, as they all pitched in to help dismantle them and move the lofts out of the room.

I was worried that the Cat Crew might wear out Benjamin and make him surly.  Physical labor is not his forte and did not know what it would do to his mood, or if he would hurt himself physically.

What a silly worry.  He blended in well with others and had a blast!  One time I saw him and another student carrying a very fragile looking dresser topped with a bookshelf.  As they rounded the foyer, I heard a terrible crunch.  Oh, no!  Was he breaking someone's furniture?  A Cat Crew supervisor was worried, and Benjamin said, "It's fine!  That was just the empty water bottle in my pocket!" and he made the crunching sounds again.  He was cutting up the whole crew, being funny and lightening everyone's spirits during the whole experience.  He said it was great fun, and that he was able to sharpen his "improv skills".  Sometimes, I think the poor boy may have inherited too much of me.

And that was the way the day went.  Benjamin moved farther and more confidently on his own, and we realized, for better or worse, our job was done.  We said our goodbyes and headed home.

It was time to let our birdie fly.

The Morning Of

The Steady March of Time has led us to this.  It is the day Benjamin starts his college journey. 

We are up a little earlier than we thought,  Benjamin was awakened by a neighbor who thought it was A-OK to use a chain saw at 6:30 in the morning.  Moving to a dorm tonight, he may have to start to get used to even more unusual noises at even more unusual times.

The picture above is from our church service last Sunday.  Reverand Kit had our family come up front and the parish lay hands on us as a show of support and solidarity with Benjamin as he starts his college experience.  I'm not in the circle yet, as I am at the dais jibber-jabbering.  If you want to know what I was saying, check out the blog post, Our Womb Episcopalian. When I was done, I joined the group and Rev Kit led us in a moving, heartfelt prayer.

This has been Benjamin's church his entire life.  The mutual love found there is a spiritual and physical source of strength in his life.

We will be gathering stuff around, packing two cars (Benjamin will be keeping the 2004 Camry, a car promised to him when he was just a toddler), enjoying the day together, and then going to Georgis College for his early move-in as part of Cat Crew (a group that will help other students move in tomorrow).

Alison has done a lot of planning and organization.  He will be well equipped once he's settled in.  Alison planned at first with the mother of Benjamin's initial roommate.  It was a bit of a surprise when that roommate accepted a room on a waiting list for another dorm where he would have his own room.  A few days ago, Benjamin was assigned a new roommate, which was fine, but it did throw off the plans Alison had made.  But we are quickly adjusting, and we think everything will be ok.

Didn't he just graduate yesterday?

Oh, well.

The adventure continues!

Emptying the Nest

A week from tomorrow, we send our boy off to college.

Far off he goes, to Georgia Collge & State University in Milledgeville.

Well, far is relative, I guess.  It's about three hours away.  Close enough where he can come home once in a while, or we could go up there.  But it's not close enough where we could do it all the time.  There will be several weeks at a time where we don't see him.

That's not a bad thing.  He needs to build his own life.  He needs to join groups, establish new friends, explore what he wants to do with his life.  And I feel that he couldn't do that at a commuter college where he spends more weekends with us than he does at school.

He has friends here, but no girlfriend.  The hardest attachment to be away from will probably be with his MeeMaw.  He took her out to Dairy Queen once a week, and he saw her other times as well, especially at church.

Benjamin has been a cradle Episcopalian.  He was even at Cursillo (a religious retreat experienced by many from church) while in his mother's womb.  In addition to all the activities at Grace, he for several years attended family night events on Wednesdays at Blackshear Presbyterian.  Although many of his fellow classmates were not aware of it, as he did not parrot Christian Right fundamentalist beliefs, he was about the most churched kid at his school.  We hope he continues his faith life at Georgia College.  He will be in walking distance of an Episcopal Church, and there is an Episcopal Youth group, The Canterbury Club, on campus.


Alison and I will soon be faced with the dreaded Empty Nest Syndrome.  We will go on, but a good chunk of our hearts and souls will be in Milledgeville.  I've already tried out for community theatre again. Benjamin is helping set up a microphone and recording capability on my desktop so I can start my journey as a recording artist.  Alison has been involved in helping her mother through some health problems.  She also has a number of hobbies that will fire up - she likes to stay busy creating and planning things.  And there will be more things that Alison and I do together.  Probably one of the big things will be planning trips to Milledgeville!

Our boy is growing up.  Change isn't always easy, but with our love for each other, and with the love and faith from our God and church, we will see things through.  It's a new stage of the journey, both exciting and scary, but we have, with the help of his church and extended family, raised a fine young man.

We love our BenJerMan!

A Visit to the Future

This weekend, we went to Springfest at Georgia College & State University in Milledgeville, Georgia.

Benjamin has chosen Georgia College, which he had received early admittance to last November.  He accepted admittance in February and has already received his schedule for classes in the Fall(part of an early registration process they call Pounce).

The whole experience was positive and joyous.  There were some twinges of sadness that our boy would soon be moving away and be on his own.  Given the three hour distance of the school, there will probably be some long stretches where we don't see him. 

The opening session had rally aspects to it, with a pep band and sing-a-longs.  That is when I got choked up.  I was just overwhelmed at the friendliness of the college, and the opportunities that Benjamin was going to have.  There was a part of a song where the parents were encouraged to sing loud, and I couldn't because my emotions were too close to the surface.

Of the three schools that Benjamin was considering, Georgia College was the Goldilocks - not too big, not too small, everything was just right.  I went to a large institution, the University of Michigan, and although not entirely negative, it was a bit overwhelming, especially for an introvert.  I think I might have been better off at a smaller school, where I might have seen some of the same people more often, and not have to start from scratch with every class I took.

There was a student organization fair, and Benjamin gave his email to get information on a lot of them.  No, he won't be able to participate in all of them, but I am so grateful that he has so many choices.

We are winding down on his high school experience, with just a little over two months to go.  His Prom is this Saturday!  Yes, I know, that seems awfully early, but that's a topic for another blog story.  There is still homework and assignments to finish up, and significant tests yet to be taken, but one thing our weekend trip showed Alison and me -

Ready or not...

The future is coming, and it's coming fast!