Graduation

On Thursday, my 18 year old cousin, Tyler, graduated high school. The graduation trip was pretty fun...despite the crazy wild driving, almost MISSING the graduation, the bomb scare, certain racist remarks from my grandma, and the 1 cousin that I can't stand. :)

The graduation was at 4:00, so all of the family made arrangements to be at my aunt's house at 2:00 and we would leave her house at 2:45. When mom and I, my grandma, and my Aunt Betsy and cousins Matthew and Emily got there at 2:05, Aunt Martha was STILL in her pj's giving Tyler and his gf, Leigh, their graduation presents. We didn't end up pulling out of her driveway (in 2 cars, driven by Aunt Martha and Aunt Betsy (the 2 crazy drivers in the family)) until 3:00. Aunt Martha was on this kick about our clothes. She swore that they wouldn't let anyone in unless they were dressed properly, and that no one was supposed to wear jeans to the party afterwards at her house. My cousin William only brought shorts, which he was wearing, until my aunt discovered it about 3 minutes from her house. She made us all turn around while she went home and found him some pants (that were too long and too tight for him). We probably didn't really leave until 3:10. Then we got stuck in HORRID traffic on the bridge over one of the tunnels in Norfolk (the Berkley bridge). My aunt's driving had passed the point of crazy driving. She was cutting over 4 lanes of dead stop traffic, slamming on brakes, gassing the car...I was glad I was in the other car, though it wasn't much better since we had to follow her.: We then had to go a back way to Old Dominion University (where the graduation was held) through the "ganster" neighborhoods of Norfolk. Seriously, we all thought we were going to get mugged or something along those lines. It was crazy. We got there at 3:57 exactly. Aunt Mary didn't get there until just before they called Tyler's name.

Then we got home and found out that just after we had gone over the Berkley Bridge, someone found a suspicious looking package in the tunnel. They shut down the tunnel/bridge, called in the bomb squad, and they blew it up only to discover it was a package of clothes.

As for the racist remarks, well....let's just say no one was prepared for some of the stuff my grandma said. I wish I had had a video camera to film everyone's (especially Matthew's) reactions. :)

The graduation was surprisingly difficult for me. Tyler is and has always been like my big brother. He's always been there for me, has always protected me, has always comforted me, and has even covered for me (don't ask). This week, I realized that I won't get to see my big bro that much any more. It was hard. Sometimes, I hate change. I wish things could always stay the same. I know that we all have to move on, but knowing that you will lose track of people and drift apart is never easy.

CWIS is in 4 days!! I am mega excited!!! This year is going to be so much fun!

Conferences, colleges, and cats.

This weekend I was up in Virginia at the homeschool convention. That was pretty fun. the Home4school store had a booth there, so I got to hang out with Brianna, which is always fun. :) I arrived at my aunt's 1700 style "plantation" (it was built by the man who built Tuckahoe, and my aunt and uncle added on two wings) on Thursday afternoon. Mary Katherine and William immediately introduced me to the newest temporary residents of Joe Brooke: 3 stray kittens they found in the barn. There were 2 black ones and a gray kitty. Aunt Mary guessed they were maybe 2 weeks old, and we think the mother may have abandoned them. At any rate, they were sooooooo sweet!! The only bad thing was that they hadn't been de-clawed, so I now have scratches all over. They think they have found a home for the gray kitty (which MK kinda took under her wing).

On Friday, we went to the conference. The best session (to me, anyways) was a college panel session. They had invited admissions counselors from ODU, University of Richmond, Patrick Henry, Regent, and the VA community colleges to come answer questions for 1 hour. Since U of R is one of the colleges I have been considering, it was great to get to hear what the counselor had to say. I got to talk to her afterwards, got some info about the school, and she gave me her card.

We had invited Brianna to come back with us and eat dinner at Aunt Mary's that night, but she wasn't feeling so great, and decided not to go. That was probably a good thing, because if she had she would have ended up spending the night with us. We had a really bad storm that night. I think the power went on and off at least 6 times, but the house has a backup generator, so it only went completely off twice. Aunt Alice and MK had come for dinner and to watch Johnny Kapahala, and they had to wait until the storm was over to go home. We stayed up until 12:30 and watched "The Pursuit of Happyness" (misspelled on purpose).

On Saturday, we went back to the convention until 2:00. Bri and I had so much fun playing certain jokes on Vogel (who deserved them. :)) Then Mom and I drove to my grandma's, where I got to see my horse, and hang out with Emily for an hour.