I spent most of the last two days with Eli and his girl friend. We toured art and architecture in downtown Pittsburgh on Wednesday. Yesterday we went to Fallingwater and Kentuck Knob. You can see Eli’s photos of our tours here.

Eli has now finished high school. GF is an exchange student from Chile. She will return home next week and spend another six months in her high school at home. Eli is going to Chile to spend the summer with her. They are very much in love, as I think only eighteen year olds can be. It will be interesting to see what happens to their relationship. Both of them have plans for the future that would keep them apart.

without Darcy. She slept with me (on top of me) for 2 full nights. The third night she came to bed after I had fallen asleep, ha ha. The fourth night she never came up, but I waited for her. If I had ever entertained thoughts of getting a dog, she has cured me. Although walking her twice a day is probably better than the health club.

Robin and Steve are going away for a few days and I am going to sleep at their house and take care of Darcy and the house. For the most part Eli and Charna no longer need much from me; they take care of themselves. One of these days I suppose they’ll take care of me.

Tonight Charna and I will go downtown to the gallery crawl. I’m not taking her–we are just going together.

Last week I celebrated my 72nd birthday. My 15 year old granddaughter said she told her health teacher that the family was taking me out for dinner. The teacher wanted to know if I was "still with it." Charna said she laughed and laughed, that I was more "with it" than the teacher. How sad that the teacher conveys this prejudice. I had a "with it" grandmother so I never belittled elders. I hope I am setting a similar example for my grandchildren .

I don’t celebrate Mother’s Day. I had such a difficult, conflict-filled relationship with my mother, I don’t feel I want to continue any celebration. I was a dutiful daughter; I called her, sent presents, went to see her. I always felt extremely hypocritical.

I was determined my relationship with my daughter would be different, and it is. I know that I have an important place in her life; I don’t need a Mother’s Day card. One small example, tomorrow she is taking me to San Francisco. She goes to a conference and I can do my own thing. What more could I ask for?

My mother would never do anything with me, except possibly help me in the kitchen. And these joint ventures were always filled with "suggestions," even after I had been married 20 years. I think that was the only way she could communicate.

One of the good things about getting older is that I have lost most of my anger about her. I can acknowledge she did the only things she knew how to do; she was not mean. The pity is that we both lost out by her inability to grow and move out of the "prison-home" she created for herself.

I finally got a good picture of Darcy. This was taken right after we got back from the groomer. Darcy is not much of a lady and doesn’t like being groomed. She would much rather roll in garbage and really stink.