I am sitting in the restaurant of the downtown Marriot in Columbia, South Carolina. The coffee is hot and satisfying on this cool, cloudy day. I finally have a moment to myself. As the boys grow in their transformative years, our lives continue to change seemingly overnight. The days are filled with new accomplishments and new challenges.
Little Chirp turned out to be an excellent road trip buddy as we drove from Houston to New Orleans. We stopped off in New Orleans to visit my cousin. We went to a Honduras cafe for lunch, which Little Chirp LOVED. Then we walked through the French Quarter before heading back to the house to watch the Dallas Cowboys crush the Vikings. In the evening we had a special dinner with my cousin and one of her friends. The food was amazing, and the company was even better.
It would take us the next two days to get all the way to Columbia, South Carolina. Traffic and stopping for important work calls slowed us down significantly. Little Chirp and I chatted, we listened to a book on tape, and we listened to my play list on my iPhone. I love his company.
He continues to self-manage his schoolwork and bring home good grades, which makes me happy. He is in speech and debate, and he is okay at it. He seems to like the volunteering aspects of the group more than the competitive aspects.
Little Chirp is not so little anymore. Of course, having the brothers together for the first time since summer, we had to do the height comparison. At 6’2″, Little Chirp is just one and a half inches shorter than his big brother. We all agree that Little Chirp will soon pass his brother up. I have always said that Little Chirp would be taller, my reasoning being that Little Chirp has always been a much better eater.
I debate whether Little Chirp will one day get a third blog name; he started out as Baby Bird. Little Chirp hates and embraces his nickname at the same time. The email address that he uses the most has the name Little Chirp in it.
We arrived in South Carolina on Tuesday evening, just in time to have dinner with Brainy Bird and his first ever girlfriend. I cannot articulate how refreshing it is to converse with a young, highly intelligent couple. At nineteen, the two of them communicate better than many of my adult friends. The two share a true bond with one another. They build each other up, and I find their affection toward each other endearing.
Sara is also at the University of South Carolina on a full college scholarship and majoring in computer science. She was the valedictorian of her high school class of about 250 students. Her accomplishments include bringing AP computer science to her high school and being a part of a research team that has recently won an important grant.
I find it interesting that Sara and Brainy Bird share the same field of study with completely different focuses. Their ambitions and technical skills beautifully complement one another.
Brainy Bird has officially declared math as a second major. He knows that his computer science degree will get him his first job, but his passion is math. I have long thought that quantitative mathematics would be a great career path for him. He is already in two graduate level math classes this semester, and he loves them both. He is starting to understand what I have been telling him all of these years.
The future is bright ahead for my birds and for Sara, and I could not be more thankful. The past few days have been days that one lives for. My heart is happy.
Happy is not all that my heart is. In my last post, I talked about going on a date with a friend. We did in fact go on our first date that Saturday. I would say that it was a perfect first date. What makes a perfect first date? In my opinion, being with someone that you care about and can be yourself with, makes for a perfect first date. Our second date was less perfect in that I was exhausted, and I could not have chosen a worst date movie. Still, the company made for a nice evening. For our third date, we took Little Chirp bowling.
The little things in life have always been what make me happy. It is the little things about my new love that make me happy. Yes, I said love.
On this Thanksgiving Day, I have so much to be thankful for. Happy Thanksgiving to you and those that you love. 🍂 Thank you for stopping by to read my thoughts.