KG's Hideaway

5-21-05 4:59pm

Last night, I cried like a baby. Austin graduated, and let me tell you, the tears started long before we ever got there. First, Ryan brought me the card she'd done for him. In it she wrote that she's proud to be his little sister and what it's meant to her to have someone like him in her life... that was my first undoing! I closed the card quickly and walked into the bathroom in my bedroom and closed the door. I leaned over the sink and sobbed. She walked right in, smiled and hugged me. So then it was time for us to give him his presents (we'd already given him the car). I managed to avoid tears here, then we were going to take pictures but his girlfriend didn't get there early enough and he wanted to ride with her.

So off we go to Texas Christian University. The Colonial Golf Tournament is going on right now (litterally right down the street from TCU) so I was worried that parking would be a bitch, and that thought kept my mind busy plus I had the music blaring (little or no chance of crying when you're thumpin', ya know?) Then I saw the TCU exit sign... and the tears started flowing again... even though the music was ON!!!! HELLO!!! Isn't that a rip off? SO we get there and he and Amanda (his girlfriend) get out of her car and he stops for a quick picture with me while Ryan went in to reserve us our seats.

OMG can you say, "DOUBLE CHIN???? God, help me!

Ok, so we get inside and we were there early, so we had plenty of time to kabitz. They were graduating 353 so the place was FULL. I start reading my "program" and discover that my son is a Texas Scholar and received a medal all for taking advanced classes. WTF? All that extra WORK and they give you some crappy medal? Ah well, I'll take it! I'm still a little worried because there is STILL time for him to screw up or the school to decide that they made a mistake. I'm well in control of my emotions (or so I was led to believe!) until the fucking band started playing the National Anthem. WTF? That's a tear jerker for SURE. That ALWAYS makes me cry, so now the flood gates were opened.

Ok, now the problem I had was that I forgot to stop and get Kleenex, so my sorry, fat ass was stuck with a ton of TOILET PAPER in my purse! God, pathetic! Well, even though my nerves were shot by this point and I'd pretty much threatened to donate Craig's balls to science (while he was still alive) but I was NOT so out of it that I wasn't aware that it would be quite trashy to unroll the shit like I was sitting in a bathroom stall, so I discretly (nothing about me is even remotely discreet) tried to just take out a little at a time. But my eyes were so full of tears that I couldn't SEE. Jesus H Christ! This was going to be embarasing. My husband couldn't decide if the better show was the actual ceremony or watching my try to get through it! But I had already threatened to divorce him (and much worse, as I'm wont to do when I'm stressed) so he wisely decided that perhaps the best plan was, for self preservation at the very least, to leave me alone.

It took long enough for them to get to the G's (last names) that I had stopped crying just long enough to hear his name called and watch him walk across the stage for this... I was shaking, so the pics are kind of blurry, but that's Austin on the right.

And after that, I was fine... for a while. They got through all the other letters in the alphabet and then, the Principal of the High School waited for the last person to make it back to their chair. As soon as they did, he said, "Seniors, your tassels!" At that time, as expected, they moved their tassel to the left. He then said, "By the powers vested in me by the Crowley Independent School District, I declare these seniors graduated!" The tears were on full force then, but I was still coherent enough to snap this... Hard to tell it with all the purple in that arena, but those are caps in the air.

Then they marched out. It was FUCKing hot outside when we hit the outside air (even though it was 10pm) it was almost hard to breathe, so the tears dried QUICK. It was 99 yesterday and today is worse, but I digress. I made a bee-line to where they were marching out of the arena and they were all chanting and just having fun... I got to Austin and Amanda and did that whole grandmother-who-hasn't-seen-her-grandkids-in-five-years-hug-everyone-at-once-hug. Austin was smart enough (at least at this point) to just "go with it". We all posed for pictures, but after showing everyone my fat ass earlier in this post, I'll just post the pics of Austin and his friends.

L-R: Brannin, Tara, Austin, Amanda- Yes, Austin is ducking down (he's 6'3) so that he can squeeze himself in between Tara and Amanda!!! Perv!

So today we had to get up early and go to Ryan's basketball tournament. They played last night but she missed the game. This morning, they won by 7. Ryan had 12 pts and 11 rebounds (got a little double-double!!) but this afternoon, she STUNK! Arggggggggghh! She still started but she only had 2 pts, 8 rebs and 4 blocks. To be fair, she doesn't feel well but we play for the championship tomorrow. Hopefully, I'll not find some reason to cry.

On a more serious note, I'd just like to ask anyone who reads this post to send some positive thoughts to a couple friends of mine who are having a rough time right now. We all have those days, but hopefully it will pass soon.

Heading out the door now for a graduation party! Wooo hooooo! Tomorrow I'll post about all the goodies brought back from Operation Graduation. They got CASH plus a huge BAG of stuff. Must be nice! kdgr