28 Years of Life for Edem. How Did That Happen So Fast? Birthday Celebration and Cuse Basketball.

Last night, they zonked out...

...at 8:30, during the Syracuse/Duke basketball game, while I was screaming. How? I have no idea, but I had to get a picture of it.

Edem celebrated his 28th birthday, and Leo and Bev joined the celebration. I grilled shrimp, stir-fried vegetables with curry mango sauce, and made cantaloupe margaritas. Surprisingly, everything tasted awesome (and I was not expecting that).

I also picked up birthday cupcakes and Bev brought ice-cream.

Earlier, Leo and I drove to New Haven to get our racing bibs. It's Run4Refugees day, and this will be my 7th year. We have quite a crew running, too: kids from Ubuntu Academy, teachers, academics, and friends. I look forward to the balmy 40-degree, although the crowd will be ridiculous large and it will be hard to maneuver.

I met Edem in the ESL classrooms at Nottingham High School in 2009 and mentored him through community college, 2 years in Buffalo, work in CT, then in Iowa, and now back in CT. He was the type of kid who doubled up on his studies and finished high school early. He's the type that watches YouTube tutorials for fun. His multilingualism and intellectual interests always lead to fantastic conversations and global perspectives.

I'm shaking my head, however, that he's pushing 30. It explains, though, how he doesn't sleep and is awake late at night and restless. I told him, "Once you hit 30, the mind stops racing. You're getting there."

And I'm thinking of when I was 28...It was the year 2000, one of my favorite graduating classes and the one where we took our kids to Ft. Lauderdale for their senior trip because a mother said, "Oh, it's tamed down. It's a family resort town now."

NOT.

That was far from the case and, I admit, in today's day and age, teachers would most definitely lose their job for taking such a trip. It as one for the record book: Cape Canaveral, Daytona, Disney World, the Beach (and all the crazy adolescent realities every step of the way).

Crazy to remember those days and that time in my life. Seems so distant now.

Okay, time to head to New Haven. I think I got 3.2 miles in me!