Just 5 More Days
Ian's graduation day was like Christmas. I woke excited and ready to leap out of bed and get things started! We enjoyed a wonderful day with family. The ceremony we attended was just for the 30 graduates. Ken Levine from 2K Boston was the speaker, and gave the somewhat typical, "Don't do what everyone else has done, go out and innovate," speech. The student speaker closed with the speech from President Whitmore from the movie, "Independence Day." It was jolly, kept moving, and just brief enough to be perfect. I hope to share photos soon.
At the Guildhall reception immediately following, Ian's brother encouraged me to steal a Christmas ornament from SMU. This made my day, honestly. Ian and I collect one special ornament to commemorate each year. This year's is stolen from SMU. I love it!
Our family feasted at Fogo de Chao to celebrate, and I do mean feasted! I swore I'd never eat again... until Ian's friends wanted to have their own celebration dinner at Benihana the following night. But really. Now I mean it. I'll never eat again! (Minus the butterscotch brownie I had for breakfast today. Surely that doesn't count, right?) It really struck me at dinnertime how much our new little family is coming into focus, however. I got a good chance to spend some alone time with Ian's mother this weekend -- nothing Monumental was discussed, but it was good to know we could chitchat on our own. The family time, my mother with us, of course, was just warm and comfortable and full of laughter and joy and pride in Ian, in us. It really was like Christmas in many ways.
In the process of things, I think my mother finally came to accept my choice about changing my name when we get married. She finally stopped mocking, "You're crazy!" long enough to actually listen to my explanation. My mother has rarely seemed to care about the details of my philosophy about anything. She's just satisfied that I have a deep-thought, reasoned, intellectual answer for something, and whatever that reasoned answer may be, the process which created it is good enough for her. (I hope.)
Ian's brother stayed up round the clock Saturday night playing Assassin's Creed, thus reminding me that it looked so fun that I really had meant to give it a try. It's not nearly as difficult as I thought it would be from watching it played. Now I have some Xbox Achievements from something other than Viva Piñata, hooray! That was my sleepy Sunday afternoon.
Finally got the Christmas tree decorated last night. It needs more garland. And cowbell.
We had Ian's friends over last night, and we watched, "Elf" on loan from one of my coworkers. I hadn't yet seen it -- it was cute despite it's right angle dead man's curve of plot. We talked about the video game metaphor for our lives here in Plano right now: It's like we've finished the mission, and just about finished all the requirements for some badge or achievement. Now we're hunting all over Hell's Half Acre for those last 5 guys to get the badge. It's like treading water. The friends stayed up to watch "Galaxy Quest" while I "went to bed at a reasonable hour," which actually involved finishing off A Dirty Job since I'm unable to renew its loan past today. It was okay - lackluster ending. Neither my favorite nor least favorite, and the "Last Sack" passage remains the best the book had to offer me.
Ian's back at "Hotel California" this morning. You can graduate, but you can never leave. He's going to try to put 40 hours a week into a volunteer project for a local game company, creating art assets. He might get game credit for it. More importantly he gets to work under a professional art director with his exclusive attention. Ian's really looking forward to the continued education and the portfolio pieces he can create during this time. It'll keep him focused in the right direction.
Five more days at work for me, then I have two glorious weeks, three glorious weekends off of work. I can't tell you how much I'm looking forward to this vacation. You can probably imagine, however.
Trace
At the Guildhall reception immediately following, Ian's brother encouraged me to steal a Christmas ornament from SMU. This made my day, honestly. Ian and I collect one special ornament to commemorate each year. This year's is stolen from SMU. I love it!
Our family feasted at Fogo de Chao to celebrate, and I do mean feasted! I swore I'd never eat again... until Ian's friends wanted to have their own celebration dinner at Benihana the following night. But really. Now I mean it. I'll never eat again! (Minus the butterscotch brownie I had for breakfast today. Surely that doesn't count, right?) It really struck me at dinnertime how much our new little family is coming into focus, however. I got a good chance to spend some alone time with Ian's mother this weekend -- nothing Monumental was discussed, but it was good to know we could chitchat on our own. The family time, my mother with us, of course, was just warm and comfortable and full of laughter and joy and pride in Ian, in us. It really was like Christmas in many ways.
In the process of things, I think my mother finally came to accept my choice about changing my name when we get married. She finally stopped mocking, "You're crazy!" long enough to actually listen to my explanation. My mother has rarely seemed to care about the details of my philosophy about anything. She's just satisfied that I have a deep-thought, reasoned, intellectual answer for something, and whatever that reasoned answer may be, the process which created it is good enough for her. (I hope.)
Ian's brother stayed up round the clock Saturday night playing Assassin's Creed, thus reminding me that it looked so fun that I really had meant to give it a try. It's not nearly as difficult as I thought it would be from watching it played. Now I have some Xbox Achievements from something other than Viva Piñata, hooray! That was my sleepy Sunday afternoon.
Finally got the Christmas tree decorated last night. It needs more garland. And cowbell.
We had Ian's friends over last night, and we watched, "Elf" on loan from one of my coworkers. I hadn't yet seen it -- it was cute despite it's right angle dead man's curve of plot. We talked about the video game metaphor for our lives here in Plano right now: It's like we've finished the mission, and just about finished all the requirements for some badge or achievement. Now we're hunting all over Hell's Half Acre for those last 5 guys to get the badge. It's like treading water. The friends stayed up to watch "Galaxy Quest" while I "went to bed at a reasonable hour," which actually involved finishing off A Dirty Job since I'm unable to renew its loan past today. It was okay - lackluster ending. Neither my favorite nor least favorite, and the "Last Sack" passage remains the best the book had to offer me.
Ian's back at "Hotel California" this morning. You can graduate, but you can never leave. He's going to try to put 40 hours a week into a volunteer project for a local game company, creating art assets. He might get game credit for it. More importantly he gets to work under a professional art director with his exclusive attention. Ian's really looking forward to the continued education and the portfolio pieces he can create during this time. It'll keep him focused in the right direction.
Five more days at work for me, then I have two glorious weeks, three glorious weekends off of work. I can't tell you how much I'm looking forward to this vacation. You can probably imagine, however.
Trace