Lil Bro has not finally and officially graduated from Washington University with a B.S. in Biomedical Engineering and a minor in economics (So proud...he's following in my footsteps on that one).
There were two ceremonies, one Thurs afternoon, the other Fri morning, that were everything graduation should be expected to be...long, drawn out, only semi-organized, but a proud moment for all. On Thurs one of the valedictorians made a very subtle reference/joke about this video which I of course understood and promptly laughed at as my family looked at me in a state of complete and utter confusion. I then discovered I am an 'engi-nerd' for catching the reference. Friday graced us with a speech from Richard Gephardt that rambled on before wrapping up in a 20 min diatribe that made undeniably clear he is cut from the political cloth. I really don't remember much of what he said in specific but I shook my head a lot at the time...so apparently I disagreed with him... It was cold...I was in a short, sleeveless dress...and there was a 'draft' ... my mind was not on his speech... ;o)
Friday night brought the graduation reception for which I did the decorations. People were impressed and loved the custom printed M&M's to commemorate the occasion. My only disappointment about the night was my lack of total inebriation at the end of the night. But, good times were still had by all... tossing mixed nuts across the room to see if they would land in one girl's cleavage... watching my mom play 3 man with the 22 year old... watching my aunt speedily stumble her way from the game of 3 man to various anchor points across the room as she came to join slur in our conversation with stories of my childhood... Lil Bro with confetti in his hair... His friends drunkenly crashing the Boeing party next door (and coming back disappointed over the lack of available women)...
Good times were had in the casino but eventually everyone had lost enough money for the night. We ended up in my cousin's room with a sink full of beer, practicing our 21 skills with cheezits/cheetos/animal crackers until the boys were so worn out they fell asleep one by one at the table. Then it was just me and his wife talking until 5am.
Saturday brought the family together for 'brunch' and then a Budweiser tour for a few of us. We didn't get to see the bottling portion of the plant since there had been a spill a few days before and things hadn't been reopened to the public but there was free, fresh beer at the end so I was willing to forgive them...this time...
Sunday was time to say goodbye...and had in store a rather long drive back to Virginia... it was rather anti-climactic since people were more stressed about packing up Lil Bro’s apartment and getting him moved out but such is to be understood. I only had my feelings hurt for a few minutes until I remembered that I paid very little attention to anyone following my graduation either…(then again, I was somewhat hungover…)
Overall, it was a good trip to see the family and I was very happy to see the aunts & uncles & cousins again. They are definitely the best part of being a member of this family...
Posted by Princess Cat at May 25, 2005 07:26 PM @ 07:26 PM in Good Times // Permalink