Thunderclouds are looming, the sky is rumbling and there’s a tornado warning in effect. All appropriate for the day, as far as I’m concerned.

This was the Biggie’s last day of first grade, her last day with the teacher who so lovingly nurtured her through kindergarten and first grade, who brought her from reading single words to off-the-elementary charts grown-up books prowess. She has taught her so much, all better than I ever could, and the Big loves her to the point that she often calls me by her teacher’s name. What more could I ask from the public school system? But we have moved, and after faithfully driving the Biggie ten miles into town every day since December for school, we are transferring her to our neighborhood school, a sweet place but definitely different; bigger, less crunchy, with less of a neighborhood feel. I’m sure I’ll come to love this school too over the next six years as the Big and then the Wee move through its corridors, but right now it’s an unknown, and as I get older I deal less and less well with uncertainty. You can take the girl out of New England, but you can’t take the New England out of the girl.

To add to the emotional upset of leaving Big’s school, our dear friends Monica and Paul and their four sweet kids left town today for the greener shores of Eugene, Oregon. I’m happy that they’re headed for a better situation (don’t get me started, thinking about the supreme coolness of Oregon and Eugene in particular), but the small, selfish part of myself that lurks in the barred-off recesses of my mind is deeply bitter. These guys are so cool; they see every challenge (surprise twins, then an even bigger surprise, one of the twins has Down’s Syndrome) as just another reason to do more and be more. There is no getting these guys down. As someone who lets herself get down on an all-too-frequent basis, I benefitted from having such a great example of kick-assedness around. And now they’re gone. Luckily we can follow their adventures on their web site organichaus.com, link coming soon (when I get up from being down).

Well, the tornado has passed as I’ve been writing, dumping epic rain and twisty winds up here on the hilltop. The late-day sun is out and the hummingbirds are zooming around the feeder again.

Not such a bad day, after all.