why are there so many guidos?

i recently discovered that one of my students is a real guido -- likes to hit on girls, dates a LOT, is a real flirt. you know, guido -- greasy dude with his old beat-up car with the loud clanky engine, hanging out the window smelling really strongly of cologne and saying "eh babee, you lookin' really fine" with the little upward nod and sly smile. i guess a player, is all. my question is, do girls really fall for that? sure, they're hot and they know what to say. but i don't know, that used to be a total turnoff for me. i guess i always fell for the quiet geeks. ;)

graduation

my school's graduation was yesterday. it was probably over 90 degrees and crazy humid and my kids were in black satin and velvet dresses, and i was in my black scholarly robe type thing. oh, and did i mention that the ceremony was outside? i think i have to say that sitting and sweating is one of my least favorite activities EVER. i suppose it was a blessing in disguise, as they sped through that ceremony in an hour and a half. SERIOUSLY shorter than normal, but still.

at least the guest speaker's speech was great -- we had the treasurer of the united states speak at our graduation (LOVE living near dc), and she was a mexican american who spoke of how you really could do anything -- she expected to harvest fruit all her life and somehow, through working hard and being piss smart, wound up as treasurer. that was pretty amazing.

usually i get very grandmothery and feklempt at these ceremonies, but i think the frequency with which i attend such events have started to render me immune. it really *does* start to sound all cliched after a while. the valedictorian's speech was sort of to that effect, too -- how not all graduation cliches are true, like how you didn't really learn everything in kindergarten, how there really are such things as stupid questions -- all sort of true, but it's not really the sort of uplifting message you're supposed to get at a graduation ceremony. i can't decide if i appreciate the honesty or wish we could continue on with the sugared encouragements.

this video always makes me feklempt cause it addresses my college graduation year, the class of 1999. i can distinctly remember being in the front seat on the top of a double decker bus, somewhere between vienna and prague, listening to this song on european choir tour the three weeks after college. and bawling my eyes out. i think it was the only time i really grieved the loss of college days. those really were the best days of my life (so far).