GranolaBox

My neighbor Terra and I had our birthdays yesterday. She just turned 21, I turned 43. Although her being 21 far overshadowed my being 43, I didn’t mind sharing my spotlight with the Earth Child and all of her cool friends. The party started around 5:00 on Sunday Night and ended yesterday at around 10:30, with a few breaks in between for sleeping, dancing and eating.

I got to meet a lot of people of all generations in my beloved Naples that I’d never met before, and everyone was great people. Finestkind as they say in Maine.

Terra wanted to go for her first legal drink after midnight on the morning of her birthday, so DOUG, the Queen of my Universe and I headed to the bar with the wild bunch of twentysomethings. Then an afterparty at DOUG’s for breakfast. After the quiche, we moved to the living room for wild frenzied dancing. DOUG and I looked across the room at each other, and we had the same thought.

DOUG came over and said “Don’t these kids make you feel good about the fyutcha?” That’s exactly what I was thinking as I watched them dance like happy maniacs to their own really cool music. I’ve never been one to be impressed by twentysomethings, but those that I met in Terra’s group of friends totally inspired me.

Nate is the grandson of the guy who started the Bristol Valley Theater in town. The theater brings in actors from New York City, puts them up in local homes, and they put on an amazing season of off Broadway plays. He just got back from Israel working on a Kibbutz. Even through all the beer his enthusiasm for the experience blew me away. This guy gets things done. We asked for music instead of five muted televisions, and the waitress explained that she didn’t have any CD’s and that the sound system wasn’t working. Within 5 minutes, we had cool music. Nate LOVES Naples, and explained to me how the town gets into your blood.

Booda Just finished getting his Pharmacy degree at Albany. He told me about how most of his classmates had accepted $100k per year jobs with early signing bonuses and were joining the rat race on top of the heap in shitholes throughout the country that can only lure pharmacists there with tons of cash. Booda opted to kick back a year, take stock of things and assess the rat race before joining in.

Seth is Terra’s brother. He’s the manager for John Brown’s Body, an up and coming reggae band. Seth’s mind goes a mile a minute, and if he wanted to sell out to corporate America at 24, he has enough charisma and ambition to retire by 28. He travels all over the world, usually on his BMW bike but always manages to get home to see the family. He meets people who know people who know other people and remembers who each of them are, and gets a lot of great stuff done for the band.

Allison is my friend Kate’s daughter. Kate and Jimmy, (Alison’s stepdad) are the coolest people. They’re like the really cool friends my older brothers never had. Allison has amazing taste in music. She’s like a young, female version of myself…. She collects and listens to absolutely anything she can get her hands on… old and new. Unlike me though, she has the technology at her fingertips that I hadn’t dreamed of at her age, and she takes EVERYTHING in.

Cameron is one of Seth’s roommates from college. Although he’s not from around here, he would fit in perfectly. He’s riding his bike across country to raise money for charity, and took 130 mile detour on his trip to see Terra for her birthday. On the way he picked up stones from Lake Erie, and then made them into earrings. How freaking cute is that? He can also chug a glass of beer without using his hands, and without spilling a drop. He has my approval, should Terra deem him worthy.

I also met a school psychologist who’d just finished her first year in Rochester City Schools. After letting her know how much I admire City School teachers we found that we knew someone in common, and that we both hated her guts, and we had a wonderful bitch session. There’s nothing like a mutual hatred to spark a friendship.

After a hard year of teaching, I often have fear for the future. The kids don’t seem fit to do anything, much less straighten out the world that my generation has fucked up for them. But this weekend gave me hope.

The kids are alright.

Filed under: General Observations on August 5th, 2008