It didn’t take long after that fateful day when I wept in the DMV as Fifteen was handed his driver’s license to realize there are some pretty sweet benefits to having another driver in the house.  Pretty, pretty sweet.  Notably, the chauffeured has become the chauffer.  Last week, Fifteen picked up his brother from school, took him to McDonalds, dropped him off at his rehearsals (this time, Cinderella) and then picked him up again and brought him home.  For our part, Kyle and I paid for the gas and the cheeseburgers.  And parented, of course.

Also, of course, there have been a few drawbacks.  The added McDonalds-related costs, like gas and insurance, for one.  The stress of knowing your beloved child is out on the road with some of the people you see driving around (everyone needs to slow down and/or speed up and/or use their blinkers and/or move to the right lane and/or move to the left lane and/or pull over and rethink their choices), for another.  Finally, and possibly the most problematic, is the Honk and Wave.

Picture yourself in your own car.  You are cruising along the road, rocking out to the Spice Girls, living your best life.  You zig-a-zig-ah your way to a four-way stop – lo and behold, what do you see?  Your good friend, Jim, stopped at the adjacent stop sign!  Jim is also jamming to the Spice Girls and doesn’t see you, so what do you do to acknowledge your friendship and your common love for Ginger Spice?  You honk, and then you wave.  Jim, being alerted to your presence via the honk, acknowledges the wave with a wave of his own.  Friendship friendshipped.

It is a maximum of eight minutes from any point in Grand Forks to any other point in Grand Forks, meaning the chance of you passing another person you know on the street is HIGH.  IT IS HIGH.  As such, the number of times a day we – specifically, Kyle, because I am too focused on the Spice Girls – Honk and Wave is a LOT.  IT IS A LOT.  Kyle is such a prolific Honk and Waver that if he doesn’t get a wave back he’s taken to calling the Honk and Wavee to point out the fact that he Honked and Waved and received nothing in return.  AS SUCH, our friends have taken to aggressively honking and waving to make sure Kyle really, really sees them.  Our friend Beth nearly fell out of her open car window while waving to us when she saw us out on an evening walk, and then she still called us afterwards to make sure we saw her.  Naturally, Beth currently holds the award for The Best Honk and Wave.

The Honk and Wave is not relegated to our friend group; I’d say that 75% of all honking in Grand Forks is to say hello.  The Honk and Wave is an important part of the social fabric in North Dakota.  Zig-a-zig-ah.

When Fifteen got his driver’s license, we gave him Kyle’s old truck and got Kyle a new truck.  Kyle’s old truck was a black Ford.  His new truck is a black Ford.  Ford’s motto is “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it,” and so the old black truck looks virtually the same as the new black truck.  Since Fifteen has the old truck and Kyle has the newly registered truck, Fifteen also has Kyle’s old license plates.

I got home from work the other night to a very distressed Kyle.

“Corey honked and waved to Fifteen today and he didn’t wave back,” Kyle told me.

“How do you know?”  I asked.

“Because he called me.”

“Fifteen called you?”  I asked.

“Corey called me,” Kye said.

“How do you know he was waving to Fifteen and not to you?”  I asked, gently, since Kyle has missed his fair share of Honk and Waves.

“Because I was sitting at the kitchen table,” Kyle said.  “So, it couldn’t have been me.”

“Oh, dear,” I said.  “Do you think you and Corey will recover from this unintentional slight?”

“It will be tough,” Kyle said.

“Well, I guess you’ll have to teach Fifteen about the Honk and Wave,” I said.

“Maybe I should get my name as a decal on the back of the truck,” he said.

“Maybe both,” I said.

Kyle has yet to get a decal and Fifteen’s mother has demanded he focus on the road and not waving back to random vehicles – and so, dear friends, take this as a Public Service Announcement that if you honk at a black truck and get nothing in return, it’s probably Fifteen. If a black truck honks at you, however…for the love of Ginger Spice, please wave back.

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Before I get to the photo, I want to deeply apologize if you got a random “You’re subscribed!” email from me last night. My newsletter group got too large for the service I was using, so I moved over to a different one (at least, I *think* I did – a double apology if you get two newsletters today) and I really didn’t know what I was doing when I picked the new one. I’m very sorry. You should only get one newsletter next week…I think…and it should come from a normal-looking email address. I think. Fingers crossed. If it’s wonky, please email me at amanda at northdakotanice.com and let me know.

I took the photo above while Kyle, Eleven, and I were driving back home during a hockey tournament in order to get Eleven to his last baseball game. Fifteen had stayed behind to play, and so we were watching the game on the Facebook feed. Similar to the Honk and Wave, our two friends doing the play-by-play and color gave us a shout-out for watching (a “Gametime Hello”) on the feed, which we acknowledged by posting a comment in the chat. Friendship friendshipped.

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I wasn’t on North Dakota Nice this week because it was Yom Kippur. Last week on North Dakota Today we talked about the community of Grafton, my Nice People of the Week, as well as an awesome partnership between the YMCA and Big Pine Lake Water Skiing Team. (Valley News Live)

Here’s the first bit of my latest Grand Forks Herald article; click here to read it all. (Grand Forks Herald)

“Coming from a school size of about 70 and a class size of seven, many people assume that small schools lack opportunity, but they are dead wrong,” said Jade Uhlich, senior at Drake-Anamoose High School.

Jade is the dictionary definition of opportunity. She has participated in every single extracurricular activity available through school, including Future Business Leaders of America, Future Farmers of America, Students Against Destructive Decisions, 1ACT, Science Olympiad, Cyber Madness, Student Council, 4-H, Academic Challenge, National Science Bowl and volunteering at the school library, to name a few. She has served as the state and local officer for FBLA, and held the title of National Resource Director for the National Mountain Plains Council. And, if that wasn’t enough, when a program didn’t exist that she wanted to do, she created it — like reading to special needs students every Wednesday.

The Hillsboro farming community showed up for Bill Cotton, who has been known for always showing up himself. (KFYR TV)

Gilby’s Gone Wild for another year in a row! (Grand Forks Herald)

Congratulations to the six musicians inducted into the North Dakota Music Hall of Fame. (KFYR TV)

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