Good News / Bad News

All five kids are "in the house" now, at least for awhile. This Summer may be the very last time we are all together like this.

And I have decidedly mixed feelings about it. Sort of like the "good news/bad news" jokes that were once in vogue....

Good News: They're all home.

Bad News: I can never lay down on the couch and watch TV.

Good News: Older Daughter is a college graduate at last.

Bad News: She's unemployed. She says she's looking for work in Indianapolis (wherein resides her boyfriend, sometimes herein referred to as "ODB" for Older Daughter's Boyfriend) but that's hard to do while staying in Chicago. And when she was in Indianapolis, last week, at the home of ODB's family, how many employment agencies did she visit? (If you answered "none" or "zero," you answered correctly.) We've encouraged Older Daughter to look for work in Chicago -- hiring on at a national concern might open up an opportunity for her to transfer to Indianapolis... or wherever ODB decides to go to grad school. But she's babysitting instead. Older Daughter does things her way, or not at all.

Good News: Oldest Son snagged not one, but two internships -- both in his field -- this summer.

Bad News: They're both unpaid.

Good News: Middle Son has finally realized that he needs to get a summer job.

Bad News: He hasn't actually found one.

Good News: Middle Son is looking for a job.

Bad News: This does not deter him from going out every night at 10:00 p.m. or later and coming home as late as 1:00 a.m. He then finds it difficult, for some reason, to get up in the morning, so his job search starts in the afternoons -- and he's surprised that he's only hearing about jobs available in afternoons and evenings. That would interfere with his baseball schedule. Of course, his continuing concern about baseball is...

Good News: Middle Son seems serious about getting better and stronger and improving his pitching velocity this Summer.

Bad News: He's not playing in any of the prestige Summer leagues. This kid is 6'4" tall, a left-handed pitcher; he has potential to become very good and maybe, just maybe, play baseball professionally -- but somebody besides his (possibly prejudiced) old man must see him play. I don't think scouts will be coming to the games in the league where he's playing this Summer.

Good News: Youngest Son was the starting pitcher for his grammar school team yesterday and was not charged with a single earned run.

Bad News: Just a whole bunch of unearned ones.

Good News: Oldest Son finally talked me into getting a high-speed Internet connection for the home.

Bad News: Our chances of seriously limiting Younger Daughter's on-line time have just about vanished. At least, enforcement of meaningful limits will become that much more problematic. And confrontational.

I could go on, but the end of the month is coming, and I have to figure out a way to get next month's rent....