Home again.
Friday morning I get up, pack some stuff and head to Austin, LB is picking Anne up at 10:45 so I have to leave early. The trip up goes well, beautiful weather and Pink Floyd complement the lack of traffic. I get to LB’s, change and we’re off! We get Anne and meet up with mom and dad at the Erwin center. The place is huge, I’ve been in it three times now and it still surprises me. I find seats at the top and end so dad doesn’t have to walk too far. The speaker sucks, badly, but I feel obligated to listen until he is finished before I start reading my book. LB walks, without tripping or cursing everyone for wasting her time and the ceremony on whole goes well. The one piece that bugs me is that my Laura shows up for LB’s ceremony but DOESN’T call me! What a waste! We could have seen each other for a bit longer and she could have come watch us eat at the Olive Garden (good choice LB, I got to eat lots o veggiesJ). We all go back to LB’s and we load the rest of her crap into the cars then my Laura picks me up and we are off to Ruth’s Chris.
Ruth’s Chris is pretty fancy, like I would only go for prom or on someone else’s tab fancy. I get to meet a bunch of Laura’s family (aunt, uncle, cousin, family friend, family friend’s grand kid, and Bunny’s dad). I got a ribeye, Ted did as well but I swear I wasn’t copying! I got mine medium rare as well. We get through dinner with the family talking to each other and I got to sit back and eat, which suits me well. Laura’s cousin can talk, and accounting and fishing are kinda boring to me so I just stayed quiet. After dinner we had to have dessert of course, I tried to shoot it down but was swayed to share with Laura. We split a fruit covered in grainy vanilla pudding thing, it was pretty good. However the best was yet to come. We head home, change and lay down as I am beat. I fall asleep holding Laura and wake to the light shining in my eyes, ok let’s just go to bed for real, Laura hit the lights! Oh wait, you can’t sleep in here… “sure I can, I’ll just turn off the lights…” “no, go say something to your parents.” She leaves, returns, hits the lights and climbs in. “What did you say?” “Goodnight.” “ok.” While I thought they were in the livingroom still turns out they weren’t and didn’t know where she was sleeping. We had a nice night, I was a bit concerned that Ted would shoot me so I stayed fully dressed and above the covers all night (well, I got cold at 4 am ish and got under the covers but who is going to do something at 4am?!) We get up the next day and everything seems ok, though Laura is later summoned to address future sleeping arrangements. We aren’t to sleep together, that’s fine, I like to hold her close to me but I get the parents’ viewpoint and will respect that. We go to Laura’s graduation, it’s not too bad I got to talk with Wendell (sp?) and we get along fairly well. After the graduation we’re off to a mexican food joint. I am sure Laura picked it cause of the name (Matt’s) which I find thoughtful, and slightly insane. ;-) I sit across from Laura’s grandfather which is slightly uncomfortable as he is not as affable as Ted is. We get along pretty well and I manage to play off my burning my hand! Overall successful.
Next on the gauntlet is the über-commencement. Ted is of like mind with me that this is going to be a zoo and is trying to save as many as he can from the debacle. Of course when he tries to save me I refuse. I really like spending my time with Laura, she is one of the few people I can stand being around and she’s an attractive female too which is damn near unheard of when holding requirements like I hold. We get there early, I stiff-arm an old lady and dive into a front row of chairs then spread out and growl until Bunny comes to watch my flank for me. Ted comes back and I get to sit with Laura for the hours we wait for the thing to kick off. The ceremony turns out to be worth it, even without the extra time with Laura, it is pretty cool and I skipped mine so I am glad I went. We head home the aforementioned summoning of Laura occurs, I eat old brisket with my hands from the container (awesome). I crash in Laura’s bed, she suffers on the coach. I keep trying to get the couch but they won’t let me! Some nonsense about guests not being treated like POWs…
This morning we head over to LB’s so I can uninstall the alarm system for her, I am sooooo handy! Laura and I hang out there for awhile then she takes me to a pizza place. I was carbing up anyway so I ate most of a medium pizza and got to chitty-chat with Laura for awhile longer before returning her to her parents.
The drive home was uneventful, I am looking forward to seeing Laura this Friday, we are going to an Astros game. (Baseball, I know?! What next knitting?) I am just reviewing my students this week and then finals, THS graduation and it’s Summer! I don’t have a job yet, but plan on testing into a few other subject areas this summer. I hope to see Laura a bit more but that will depend on her career path. I am pretty enthusiastic about the future but kinda wish I knew who will be where and with whom.