Alert, not a humorous post today.

Did you ever have one of "those" days or weeks?  When you just know it may not end well.
Today was one of those days.
I agreed to go on a errand run with the "other" who lives in the house with me.   This has not happened in almost two years or so, but I kinda got cornered by mentioning ahead of time my plans for this day.

Since discussions when not in public are limited to general requests, griping about everything from using the dishwasher when it is not full to my lack in all things, being trapped for hours on an errand run is not on the top of my top ten list. Heck it isn't even at the bottom.

I prefer not to be embarrassed when I am out, and this always happens and it is not my fault.  I have many witnesses who would attest to that fact.  But I needed a distraction today, so I agreed.

My youngest had her last final exam for the term at college, and was heading home for the summer after finishing the packing of her apartment.   She had originally hoped it would be her very last exam, but year five is starting in September.  It's not that she isn't bright or doesn't do well, but like the practical young woman she is, she has changed her major, not once, or twice, but three times.  She watches the job market like a stock brokers watches the ticker and futures.  She wanted to be employed in the area she had studied for when she got the diploma and started part two.

Understandable I thought.  I had decided to let her do what she had to do... because I did not ever want to hear the words  that I made her do what she was unhappy doing. Her life, her choices.  She is paying for school, and she will be paying back the student loans.

So after four years of high school and four years of college, my other, her father has decided to take interest in what she was doing.  Hello !!  Eight years of not taking interest.  Eight years.   So while she sits here, fretting over the final grades which shall determine her direction, stressed and in need of a time out, she gets to hear from the clueless other, that she basically is a failure for spending four years and not getting a degree.  Not smart.
The other has no clue that fully eighty percent of her friends are also heading into year five.  That the four year trek into adult hood is not the norm. Not now, not in those times.  I watched my daughter who has cried three times in eight years, who is a tough, hard working, young women dissolve into a puddle that forms when the final drop hits the full sink and water flows on the floor.

She had alternate plans should the test scores not be what she hoped for in a similar field, only to be told that they were not sensible plans and that they would not lead to that degree.  They would lead to a lucrative career and the degree could easily follow.  
A degree does not always make for a job or a good job, and why mr. know it all now, should know that.  He should also know that  a pat on the shoulder tonight, would have made for a better evening than the path he chose without thinking.