Many of you will remember that ASS has a friend named Frank. ASS and Frank became friends in preschool, back when ASS lived on the west side of the state and DH was married to Medusa.

Frank's mom allowed ASS to go live with them after ASS graduated from high school and she did her best to encourage ASS to go to college like Frank was going to do. DH and I believe that if it hadn't been for ASS moving into Frank's house, ASS's life may have turned out very differently. I truly believe that ASS watching Frank and his family get him ready to go away to school helped ASS see that he, too, needed to go to college.

Once ASS made the decision, Frank's mom took him dorm shopping and got him all outfitted for his dorm room. We had no idea that she had done this, and she refused to let us reimburse her for the money she spent. I think she loves ASS like one of her own. She is a good and decent Christian woman who, in addition to Frank, has two daughters - one is about 24 and off on her own now, and the other is 21 and is mentally challenged. I really like Frank's mom.

Anyway - ASS went off to what we here in the mitten call "a directional school" and Frank went off to the college that Thing2 attended. Apparently, the boys kept in touch. At the end of their freshmen years, Frank returned home and ASS went to stay with DH's parents in our hometown. DH left directly from Thing2's graduation ceremony to go to said directional school to pick up and deliver ASS to his parents. DH and ASS had a lot of time together whilst packing up the dorm room and driving back to DH's parents' house - they had lots of conversations, most of which made DH very happy.

That night, as we laid in bed, DH was telling me all about the drive home and the conversations he and ASS had. Mostly I just listened, because I have nothing to say about ASS, but when DH told me what he learned about Frank, my ears perked up. Frank, who was a straight A honors student in high school and who was in the Honors College at MSU, had ended the year depressed, failing his classes and trying to figure out if he was going to return to school ASS told DH that he didn't really know WHY Frank had gotten depressed, but that he was very worried about him - so much so that ASS was thinking about transferring to MSU (DH's alma mater) to help his friend.

I put all that away for awhile until yesterday morning, when DH told me that he was going to his parents' house after work to pick up ASS, then come back to our house to pick up BabyVoice, and then head to CollegeTown to meet Frank's mom and Medusa's sister. ASS was going to go to Frank's house for a few weeks and BabyVoice was going to spend some time with her cousin. CollegeTown is halfway between where Frank lives and where Medusa's sister lives (you may remember her as Auntie Addict, though she is long since been a recovering addict and is totally straight and narrow now and has ZERO contact with Medusa).

Since I had a night free from people in my house, I went and got my nails done and then stopped by a friend's house to catch her up on Thing1's move to Chicago last weekend. Two more friends showed up and we had a great time sitting outside chatting. One friend has been a grandma for about a year now (our daughters went to high school together) and the other friend is a photographer who just shot my daughter, SIL and granddaughter on Sunday morning. Shot as in photos

All four us have sons the same age, who all went to middle school, high school and in one case college together and we have known each other for a very long time. It was great to just sit and chat about the changes in all of our lives. Two are now empty nesters, as am I even though I still have skids in the house, and the fourth friend has one who will do his last semester at IU this fall and then graduate and a daughter who attends the University of Alabama.

When I got home, kind of late and with some liquid courage, I asked DH how the kid hand off went and how long ASS was going to stay. You see, ASS finally took and passed his driving test and DH told him if he did that, we would give him Thing1's car to take back to Directional School in the fall. DH told me that he was going to go meet Frank's mom a few days before ASS had to go back to school.

Uh, you think that's a good idea, DH? Kid has only been driving since June and JUST passed his road test last weekend, but you're going to just give him a car, point him the direction of I-75 and tell him good luck? DH agreed that he should probably bring ASS back a little bit early so that he could do some driving in the car we are going to give him with DH's parents. I swear, for an uber smart guy, DH is kinda dumb sometimes.

So, my takeaways are:

ASS may have learned some compassion from the Frank situation

ASS may have grown up a little bit while away at school

ASS and DH seem to have a better relationship than they used to (ASS even sent DH a Father's Day card, while KK and BV completely ignored the day)

Kids like Frank, who come from great families, can go in a whole different direction than you think they will go

I really like sitting outside chatting with girlfriends

I may have one too many glasses of wine according to the headache I have this morning