Finally the whole story...

Recently Karen asked to hear how Andrew's graduation went and when she began to cry because she was laughing so hard I realized I should write up the whole story. True this was after a few drinks (a lot of drinks) so we'll see how funny it is now... sober.

Sunday morning rolled around a little quicker than I was ready for but when I woke up I thought to myself "Today I would LOVE to sit in the pouring rain wearing a trash bag with Andrew's entire family for 3 hours!" And by gosh if that's not exactly what I did!

Andrew had to leave early because a. he was the one graduating and b. he had forgotten to pick up his cap and gown on saturday so he had to try and track one down before the ceremony started at 9:30am. So I was left alone to get ready for the morning of rain (of course I had forgotten my rain jacket) and to brace myself for more family time...

I called John when I arrived on the green because there was no way I was going to find them through the sea of umbrellas. When I finally ran into him (literally) he brought me over to my seat where my "rain jacket" was waiting. It was was a lovely translucent garbage bag, thank goodness I had pulled together a decent outfit after having to scratch my original plan of a white sun dress. Mr. Loe had even brought me a rain hat (a plastic grocery bag that fit just perfectly on my head, how thoughtful.) As I sat down I felt like an 80 year old, double arm amputee who was protection her curlers from the harsh weather. I looked ridiculous and was embracing it! By embracing it I mean I was trying to act casual as I readjusted my rain hat with my right arm that I had to stretch through my neck hole of my trash bag while still trying to hold a decent conversation about how great it was that Andrew was graduating.

Mrs. Loe arrived wearing her rain jacket (what a prepared mom) and trash bag skirt carrying hot coffee for all of us and an assortment of muffins and cinnamon rolls. She was just elated to be there and was not going to let rain get in the way of the big day. She even made the comment that it felt natural for it to be raining. After she has sat through countless rainy regattas as a supportive fan of course it would rain for one of her proudest moments, Andrew's Graduation.

As we all sat there in the rain waiting for everything to get going we were entertained by this women....

John rightful named her The Usher Nazi. She had one job to hassle anybody and everybody who stood up during the program. And let me tell you, she took her job SERIOUSLY! (You should have seen when a man tried to enter with balloons, she was not havin any of that!)

As the ceremony started we all quieted down and listened to a not so great commencement speaker (I guess I'm a little jaded after Barrett's graduation of awesomeness.)

I sat between Mrs. Loe and John which worked out perfectly because he added some great comments about the Nazi as Mrs. Loe told stories about Andrew growing up and her graduation from med school. It was a perfect balance of entertainment.

As Andrew walked across the stage Mrs. Loe started to cry and I felt horrible as I didn't even have an arm or a hand for that matter to comfort her with see how I was trapped inside of a garbage bag.

As graduation ended Andrew met up with us and it was back to awesomely awkward family time. As always we took some pictures and Mrs. Loe insisted I be in some.

Here we'll play a quick game. It's like when you were a kid... What doesn't belong??


Answer:


Oh yeah, that's me! I'm clearly out of place!

As the afternoon rolled on it was one great family moment after another. First we went to the sailing team bar-b-q and then we all sat together and watch Oceans Thirteen... how cute! And don't you guys worry between the bar-b-q and movie I happened to experience two more of my fears of the weekend 1. falling (yes, right on my butt in front of everyone) 2. saying something horribly stupid. Glad I got those out of the way, I'd hate for them to think I could actually walk and talk at the same time.

And the next day was even better! We all had to wake up early not only to move Andrew out of his dorm but also to pack up his room (here's to planning ahead!) As I bent over to help pack another bag of t-shirts Mr. Loe made some comment about how I don't bend my knees, oh yeah... he thinks I'm a freak!

After everything was packed Mrs. Loe and I did a bit of shopping and then grabbed another fam lunch! Of course from there we had the 'goodbye' moment... AWKWARD!! I really should have planned this parental meet and greet on a less 'family oriented' occasion but what can you do? It's over and hopefully it went well...