Today was a big day. We're missing the Kentucky Derby Festival's Pegasus Parade, on Broadway near Vincent's school and my old apartment and not too far from my work, for a couple of reasons. Today was the climax of a big physics project that Vincent and his classmates had been working on: building a mousetrap car - a car motored by the spring of a mousetrap - which he's been working on at school - sometimes pilfering our house for new ingredients - and then "racing" it - at least 10 meters, hopefully - which was important for getting a good grade so Vincent could pass science class. Vincent was vague this afternoon about how far his car went, but his classmates assured me that doing a good job of building it was also part of the assignment (although he destroyed the car after racing it, so I never got to see it or take a picture of it). (Teacher Tina, who took three pictures now on our dining room wall, advised Vincent on it, and he and I went to St. Matthews hardware for more supplies.)
This afternoon was also Vincent's school's "junior ring ceremony." I got there just after 1 p.m., to the big Brown auditorium, and Vincent and his classmates filed in soon thereafter. With black jeans and a black dress shirt, Vincent was dressed not radically different from his male classmates. Carrie, Vincent's humanities teacher, who sponsored many of his junior-year activities (10-minute plays, Kentucky United Nations Assembly), presented his ring to him and had read some nice words she had written about him:
Vincent has shown an incredible amount of growth at the Brown School. His quick wit and sarcasm continue to amuse (or appall) us all, but his growth as a caring, intelligent individual leads me to believe in a great future for Vince most of all.
Vincent's ring is silver with a black (onyx) stone and Aries and a dragon on it and says Brown on it.
Vincent's classmates awarded him the superlative "Most likely to take the blue pill and see just how far the rabbit hole goes" (as in "Alice in Wonderland"). Also making remarks at the ceremony were Juanita, who was briefly Vincent's debate coach, and Becky, Vincent's English teacher who pressed us to look at private colleges for him. Taking pictures was Alice, his Western Civ (whose outline and dialectic assignments several of his classmates commented on). I see that Pam, Vincent's math teacher, also slipped a "certificate of improvement" in Algebra 2 certificate in his packet (as did Carrie for Vincent in Humanities)(and Becky inserted a gift).
Many of Vincent's friends in Louisville are in the Brown Class of 2009 with him, and many of these were over at our house at some point during their 10th grade, and so it was nice to see all of them, many of them with their parents (and I saw almost all of the guys 2 1/2 years ago at the freshman retreat). Stephanie decided not to miss work, and we're rushing home to rescue the dog, instead of going to the parade, partly because he was ill yesterday and last night.
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