Saturday we held Emma’s graduation party at our house. It was a smashing success. I can’t remember the last time I’ve been surrounded by some many people that I cared about and wanted to talk to. It was also a mini family reunion for my mom’s side of the family.

The week leading up to the party was fairly hectic. We really had to push the painters to get the ceiling done. They had already removed the popcorn, we just needed them to finish up the mudding and painting so that we (the wife actually) could start cleaning and prepping the kitchen full time.

I spent a week getting the basement totally 100% re-organized and cleaned. I had to forgo my exercise routine and my 3D printing to do it, but it was worth it. The basement is the cleanest it’s been since we moved in. So when I brought people down to show off my printers I wasn’t mortified at all the clutter.

Summer stayed with us Friday night. Everyone woke up at 7AM yesterday to begin getting the party ready. I had no idea that Summer was going to work as hard as she did, helping the wife get all the food and decorations ready. I finished cleaning out the garage and got out the sidewalk chalk. Elsa and I decorated the driveway with it.

Tom and Marcie and the other immediate family showed up around 11AM. It’s always great seeing them. My brother Tom has been one of the most influential males in my life. Like first of all would be Dad, obviously. I think I learned how to be curious about life from him (dad), and to always have some weird side-hustle going on to make money. Not to make a lot of money, mind you. I think he just wanted to see what he was capable of creating and then to see if other people liked it enough to pay some amount for it. Like selling night-crawlers, mocassins, or produce. I get the feeling that he just liked to be involved and useful in other peoples’ lives, and since he didn’t have the social skills to come out and just directly talk to people, he used his hobbies as a way of getting to know people and having some topic to discuss. Or maybe I’m just projecting that from how I feel about hobbies lol.

From Tom I learned how to be a father. Now, from my own father I learned how to be a grandfather lol. You see, my dad was 40 years old when I was born. And let’s say that I’m not a full self-conscious person until I’m 12 years old (the age when I first became aware of my clothes and how they compared to my classmates). So I didn’t really get to know my dad until after he was 50 years old. And at that point, being that old, and having already raised two sons years earlier, he was in his later middle-age stage. Most of the activities that he and I did together would be more of like a grandfather and grandson type. But my brother Tom is only 9 years older than me. I got to see how he raised his kids and the type of dynamic that he used. So he was my “father figure” or role model for when I had kids. But more importantly Tom showed me that I didn’t have to accept a blue-collar/redneck existence. Tom is very good at electronics and technical fields. He showed me that it was possible for someone in my family to be highly intelligent and to be rather nerdy when it came to technology. So I thank him for that.

What other males have shaped my life? Well, there’s my mom’s twin brother Jack, who I think I’ve already mentioned in previous posts. From him I learned how to have a calm and even temperament. He’s literally the male version of my mom and her temperament, very stoic. So Jack was very influential in that sense. Then my dad’s brother Jack was influential in the computer/technology realm. He really seemed to the the white sheep in a family of black ones. The only other male I can think of right now, besides all these, is famed author Dave Ramsey. I’ve never met the guy but his financial guidance, attitude about debt, and philosophy about money has forever changed my family’s life for the better.

Back to the party, Tom and Marcie showed up. Then both John and Sariah showed up. I knew that John was coming but Sariah was a pleasant surprise. These are two people that I’ve spent almost my whole life with. It’s great having friends like this where, even if you haven’t seen each other in two years, when you get together you talk and it’s like no time at all has passed. You just pick up right where you left off.

I was showing off my printers when the wife came down and said that people she didn’t know where showing up. It was my cousin April and her father Stan. Stan is mom’s brother-in-law. It was great to see both of them, especially Stan, who was so nice to dad in his final days. When dad was in the Quincy hospital Stan would come by every day to visit with him.

Then the floodgates opened and everyone in the world showed up lol. I was so happy to see teachers at our house, people who had never been here before. Emma’s friends all showed up. Elsa had a friend show up. My uncle Ted and his wife showed up. My cousin Jeff and his wife and son Phil showed up. Uncle Jack and his family showed up. Marcie’s mom and sister showed up. I think there were probably 70 people here at once, maybe 100 total. There were people who I had no clue who they were. But as nice as it was for me to be able to meet-n-greet and entertain all these people, it was touching that they all loved Emma enough to stop by and hang out. Emma had all her sports banners, track medals and plaques out for display. It was really very impressive to see all at once what she had accomplished in school.

John brought his drone and I asked if he could shoot some video. And the video turned out awesome! Normally I frickin’ hate drones with a passion but it was different in this case. Like, I know the guy operating it and I know the situation and environment. But I hate going to large events and seeing these random drones out shooting footage. It feels like an invasion of privacy.

Eventually most of the guests left. Mom’s family stayed longer and we all talked about Shaun Livingston and his life. We talked about the olden days too. For a while I felt like I was 7 years old again, being the youngest at the huge family reunion. These old relatives we discussed, some passed away 50 years ago. Heck even in mom’s family there’s only her and two brothers left. Someday they will be gone. Someday I’ll be gone. My kids (and hopefully grandkids) will talk about me. But what about in the far future when they’re gone too? No one will remember me. It will be like I never existed. Maybe that’s why I have this blog. It may live on in some electronic form. Maybe it’s now the year 2154 and you’re reading this. Hi there, future person!

Yesterday was Emma’s actual graduation ceremony. It was great except for all the people who now think it’s ok to bring noisemakers and whistles to this event. It’s cool that you want to celebrate but c’mon, there is a time and place for that. You don’t need to make the whole gym sound like a cicada invasion. You don’t need to do a tribal warrior dance in the hallway, blocking people from leaving.

So Emma and I will be spending lot’s more time together. I’ll probably wake her up fairly early every morning and the wife will have a list of chores for her. Who know what her future holds?

Last night I set up my LLC through Legal Zoom. I figure that it’s cheap enough, it let’s me learn more about the ins-and-outs of running my own business, but mainly it protects me in case something I sell ends up south. Not saying it’s likely, but if I have a booth someday selling 3D printed stuff, and some kid chokes on it, at least my personal property will be protected in case of a lawsuit. Once I get my EIN I’ll get a bank account. I really don’t see me making any large amount of money, but it’s still worth it for a learning experience.

There are definitely opportunities for me to make money with prints. But in order to capitalize on them I need to modify the prints and files so that they are worthy of being sold. That takes time and also a continuing journey up the learning curve. But I am having an awesome time doing it so far. It’s not really a case where I wish I would have done this sooner; the printing technology is so new. I’m still in at the ground floor. I just really need to get better at 3D modeling so that I can create my own designs and not rely on others.