About to burst

I am so proud of my daughter, I could literally burst. She has attained her PhD in microbiology. It was a long hard road, and there were times when I thought she was going to throw in the towel. But somehow she always found the strength and the determination to stick it out another day, another month....another year until she finally finished. I asked her if she was excited, or relieved, but right now, all she says is that she is still feeling rather "shell-shocked". It hasn't sunk in yet. And along these same lines, I found myself worrying about her move to England. Its foreign. Will she be able to figure out all the logistics of finding a place to live, a new bank, a place to shop? Will she feel homesick or lonely until she gets acclimated? Will she find the weather of northern England too damp, or depressing? But then I actually had another thought that went something like this, "Oh my God, she's a Dr. now!! That probably makes her way more qualified to take on all of these tasks than I will ever be." And that thought calmed me down, because of course she is smart and competent, and has done her research to make this transition go as smoothly as possible. She will be fine. Why do I keep thinking of her as a little 16 year old that needs to be protected and guided??? A 16 year old who still needs her Mommy to remind her to clean her room, and make sure all of her homework is done. LOL.

Anyway, Halloween here was kind of a bust. We had torrential rain all night. Stephen and Hannia went downtown, but they said it was basically a ghost town. There were more policemen than party-goers. They hung out at a club called "Winslow's Tavern", but it wasn't crowded. Too bad. Usually downtown Greenville is a circus on Halloween night. We had exactly 2 trick-or-treaters that came before the rain started. These were the kids of a woman who works with Bruce. We hooked them up righteously....seriously. Bruce bought them both a grocery bag full of candy. For each of them. Its probably a good thing because the rain started not long after that and I don't think they did much more trick or treating afterwards.
Oh well....there is always another Halloween next year.