He’s 18!

Posted on May 25, 2023 by Tessa

Holy moly! My baby is 18. Somehow that happened today.

At this time 18 years ago, we were snuggling a tiny baby. The first in the next generation of Collier/Johnsons. It was such a surreal experience.

And in the blink of an eye he turned into a giant, functioning human being, rocking his life in high school and preparing to spread his wings and fly.

*For those who can’t do the math (me!) the answer is WPI. :)*

We had a perfectly lovely, low-key Lex style birthday day. He wanted cookies instead of cake and an evening with the robotics team, which he hasn’t been to in awhile due to recent theater and band commitments. We all did the normal school thing, of course. Eve and friends sang to him at lunch and his buddies bought him Twizzlers. After school we had a quick appointment at the doctor’s office where Lex had to fill out his own medical forms and a separate form authorizing the doctor to talk to me and Alan. Welcome to adulthood, it comes with paperwork. :)

After that we came home to open presents. He got fun stuff like WPI gear and a new phone (sort of fun, he is a ~~neophyte~~ after all — Mom, this is not the right word! What is the word you always use?!), and boring stuff like sheets and towels for college. After a quick dinner of New York bagels, he was off to robotics to prep for their match at WPI next weekend!

We had another fun surprise this evening when I was tidying up the birthday celebration and we realized the bagels were a monthly subscription! Who knew you could get a subscription for authentic NY bagels?! (clearly Rosy knew!)

He has a few more weeks of senior-slide school left, then it’s summer vacation. I’m going to make those days last as long as possible before I deliver him to his new life on August 20th.

Happy Birthday Lex!! I could not have asked for a better kid. I love you forever and ever. 💗

Lex’s last concert

Posted on May 20, 2023 by Tessa

This week was Lex’s last concert at Hartford! He has come such a long way from his first concert so long ago. At this concert he programmed the lights and taught Eve to run them. He played with the concert band and the jazz band, he accompanied the Concert Choir and Chamber Choirs with some of their songs, and he won two awards! He got kudos and recognition and had a blast.

After the concert they had an ice cream social and all the kids stayed to socialize. It was another really nice night that left me smiling from ear to ear.

Side story: I got a new phone this week and have been setting up all the apps and stuff again. Google has been giving me a whole new series of “recommended photos” and “memories” and whatnot. I clicked through one today with a bunch of pictures of me with other people. In every picture I think I looked really good, but I remember hating the pictures back in the day. I reminded myself of that when I look at the two pictures of me above. I hate everything about how I look in those pictures, but 60yr old me might disagree. We’ll see. In the meantime, it was an awesome night I’ll stay focused on my amazing son and how proud I am to know him. 💗

Black belt!

Posted on April 30, 2023 by Tessa

Lex tested for his full black belt this weekend and did amazing! They had a 3+ hour technical exam in the morning, then a brief break for lunch, followed by the presentation and award ceremony. It was indoors and mask-free, which was really nice.

Lex (and the others) showed off a variety of katas (series of moves), including partner katas and weapons katas. He has been going to karate on his own since he got his license and a car, so I don’t get to watch anymore (and I’ve forgotten a lot of the words!). It was really awesome to see how powerful and confident he is in the dojo.

I didn’t have my camera out quick enough for that first video. He was doing the application drill with four “attackers” coming at him, one on each side. Each kata is a series of moves that can be done with a partner (“attacker”) doing the opposite moves, together creating a fight sequence. Katas are learned first on their own, then with a partner.

I’m super proud of Lex. He has really found something he enjoys and stuck with it through the good times and bad (masks!). He is so strong and confident on the floor. He even learned that Sensei Ken (head teacher) has a mentor who runs a dojo in Worcester, MA! We are going to look that up and see if it’s accessible from WPI. Lex had planned on letting karate go once he started college, but upon hearing about Sensei’s mentor, he is reconsidering and might try to continue through college. That would be cool.

Then and then and now. 🖤

WPI Accepted Student Day

Posted on April 12, 2023 by Tessa

A sugar cookie that came with the swag bag.

WPI hosted several “Accepted Student Day” events. Lex was unsure at first if he cared to go, but last week decided it would be a good idea. I already had plans and also can’t walk for more than a few minutes, so I asked Alan to take him. They were both up super early in time to get to WPI by 8:30am, but both said it was well worth it! They learned about the robotics team (WPI has a FIRST FRC team that Lex could help coach!) and the music opportunities (Pep band and rock bands!) and some courses that interested Lex. He learned that May 1st is the deadline for enrollment (first round, I’m sure) and that lots of information will start flowing after that. I can’t wait! I love information. :)

I asked Alan to buy him a t-shirt for “Future Plans Day” at school. I got a text at 8:30 this morning from Alan saying “They gave him a t-shirt at registration, so one job done!” :)

Lex came home exhausted, but happy, and confident in his decision to attend WPI. That makes me happy. <3

High School Variety Show

Posted on March 30, 2023 by Tessa

We saw the very best ever high school variety show this evening. It had jokes and songs, some good and some terrible, and jazz band performances, and technical issues (so many!), and audience participation — it was fantastic! ?

They were having a lot of issues with the music accompaniment for several of the acts, but the high schoolers were awesome at getting through it. The best was when our favorite amazing performer (not in our family) who is kind and funny and we’ve known since kindergarten. She’s short and sang a song called Short which totally dissed on short people. She played it up amazingly, especially half way through when her music stopped. She made a joke about her song being cut short, then proceeded to finish it without the music. She was funny and fantastic.

The flip side was another girl who was wearing lingerie, including garters, and sang a loud angsty song while practically making out with the mic and repeatedly flipping her hair in an awkward trying-to-be-sexy way. It was painful to watch.

The MC (master of ceremonies, and which apparently none of my teens knew what MC stood for) was also very funny.

The best part of the show, of course, was the jazz band, specifically the song that Lex arranged! He loves the video game Portal and the music in it. He took one of the songs and arranged it for his jazz band. At the Jazz Festival last month they learned that other local schools have singers accompanying the jazz band for many of the songs, so Lex thought it would be fun to do that in his song too. It was fantastic and the applause at the end made my heart full.

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Enjoy!

Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI)

Posted on March 17, 2023 by Tessa

Hey! I forgot to post the great news here! We had a snow day on Tuesday and Lex decided that would be the date to commit to his college of choice.

WPI has an excellent computer science program, which is his intended major, but they also have a great music program AND a close relationship with FIRST Robotics. Apparently Dean Kamen, founder of FIRST, attended WPI but dropped out in 1976 to work on his insulin pump invention.

*My favorite drummer boy with his percussion buddies, accompanying the high school choir at last night’s concert.*

I’m so happy that Lex wants to keep music in his life. He arranged a song (based on a popular video game) that the jazz band will perform at their next concert. He loves making music in Minecraft and recreating songs. He was writing his own song too, but I’m not sure where he stands on that. He really likes the combination of music and video games. WPI gives him plenty of opportunity for both of those, plus it’s near Boston, hosts FIRST competitions, and is a really nice campus with modern technology and amenities.

He got a really good financial aid package from him, but the balance is still staggering compared to what I paid for Syracuse University many years ago! I immediately have a better understanding of the student debt crisis! I think he will be able to manage it though, especially if he sticks with that computer science degree.

This has also been the next step for me in the letting go process. All of the emails go to him, so I’m gently reminding him to check his email and keep an eye out for important things like move in dates! I want to have ALL the information immediately, but now I’m (kind of) patiently waiting for information to come from them to him to me. Eeek!

One Act time again

Posted on February 18, 2023 by Tessa

The One Act is back, with Eve on stage and Lex on lights! What a brilliant duo. The show was called Variations on a Theme and was a series of variations of how a scene at the train station could play out between a guy and a girl. The guy was at the station and each scene was him imagining a different outcome. It was cool and deeper than I was expecting as the guy worked through his feelings about their relationship coming to an end. I enjoyed it.

The cast will perform one more time at a Festival in April when many different high schools come together to perform their One Act plays. It should be interesting. Eve is excited for it. Lex will be at an FRC event that weekend, so he won’t go to the festival.

Jazz!

Posted on February 9, 2023 by Tessa

I went to a great jazz concert last night. Two of my favorite teens were in it. :)

The kid in the back isn’t mine. He is a former otter though and Lex’s protégé. :)

The big three high schools got together and put on a jazzy show. The jazz bands from each school performed three songs each, then they joined together for, as one director put it, “a wall of sound!” It was great.

Lex was on the drum set for the first two songs, and the xylophone for the third. In the combined performance he’s hard to see because he was in the back on the conga drum.

“I congaed too hard and bruised my thumb.”

College acceptance #1

Posted on January 20, 2023 by Tessa

Lex applied to two colleges and this weekend we heard back from the first one — Worchester Polytechnic Institute (WPI). They sent him a “Welcome to the Class of 2027!” email! Things are different these days. They send an email and tell you to check the portal. The portal had the welcome letter. A few days later they sent another email directing him back to the portal for his financial aid package. I was hoping for a fat envelope with lots of information and pretty colors and stickers or something. But I guess it’s just email these days. All that aside – Lex got accepted to WPI!!!

I was really hoping he’d get in to at least one of the two schools so we didn’t have to start the whole process over again. Now we wait until February to hear back from Champlain College. 🤞🏻

More music

Posted on December 13, 2022 by Tessa

The blog this year might be pretty Lex heavy. :) Enjoy!

Lex and B’Lake had their winter concert tonight.

The dress code is always “black on black” with kids in jazz band instructed to wear a “touch of blue.” I gave Lex an early Christmas present with a cool (IMHO) blue/gray Lego tie. He liked it well enough to wear it, which is all I can ask for. :)

Every year they honor the seniors who have been part of the music department for all four years. The band director made a really nice speech tonight about how this year’s seniors entered high school in 2019 when everything was easy breezy, then they proceeded to face every variation of band and choir imaginable. Singing/playing outdoors in the winters, performing with masks, social distancing, recording performances, live streaming, etc. Yet they stuck with it. She acknowledged how easy it would have been to quit when band/choir no longer looked/sounded the same and took a lot more work, but this year’s seniors stuck with it. It was a sweet and touching statement. Then she announced that all of these 4-yr seniors would get a snazzy fleecy zip-up!

Here is the jazz band’s final song, with many solos, including B’Lake on the flute and Lex on the vib e s!

I picked Eve and Simon up from work and brought them to the concert. On the way out it was snowing and they started heel clicking. They were both doing really good heel clicks, so we thought it would be fun to get a picture of them clicking together. It didn’t go so well, but we had fun anyway. :)

Calm and Chaos: Life with kids

Tag Archives: Lex