Graduation weekend!

What a great weekend!  I started feeling achy on Thursday and wondered if I was coming down with a cold or the flu.  I didn’t feel any better on Friday, and I just really wanted to stay well for the weekend ahead of us.  I had so much fun Friday night with Kristin and Mary that I forgot I didn’t feel good.  We met at Panera, and I enjoyed listening to them talk about wedding plans… colors, dresses, venues, etc.  It took me back to just 6 months ago when I was finishing last minute details, and for the millionth time, I would do it all over again.  Our goal for the evening was to find our dresses for the Currins’ Christmas party.  The original attire was formal, but they quickly adopted the thrift store formal idea when John mentioned the PNEGE (Pre New Year’s Eve Gala Extravaganza) we had 3 years ago.  With a velvet long sleeve top, a long body, and a big velvet bow on the back, Mary’s dress could not be more perfect.  Kristin’s is also perfect, cinched on the sides with net sleeves.  We found theirs at a thrift store on 580 and then drove to the Goodwill in Oldsmar for mine.  I can’t even describe it, but there will be pictures. 

I didn’t sleep in as late as I wanted Saturday morning, thanks to the tree trimmers outside.  Sandy and I left for Gainesville around 1:45 and hung out at the hotel and Target till the boys got there.  I got a text from John when he finished his last final, and he was so excited.  We (me, John, Dick, Sandy, Justin, Kristin, and Justin’s parents) went to the Swamp for drinks and appetizers before the party officially began.  We stayed at the party pretty late and enjoyed meeting the boys’ classmates, especially getting to know Brandon, Robert, and Andrew, the other guys that were on their team.  I took Sandy and Dick back to the hotel around 10:30, and went back to the Swamp till about midnight.  The boys decided they weren’t ready to end the celebration, so we went to a hookah bar before heading back to the hotel.  It was my first time smoking hookah, and it went much better than the one and only cigarette I’ve ever tried to smoke, in 9^th grade, 14 years ago.  I feel old.  We got back to the hotel around 2am and went to bed around 2:45am.  Sunday morning came super early, but graduation was great.  Oddly enough, I cried more at John’s graduation than I did at our wedding.  I think it’s because I’ve been waiting for this day since we got engaged…waiting for John to have a less stressful job, to be home more, and to not have studying, papers, and conference calls hanging over his head.  I was so proud of him, and it was such a relief to know that it was over; I couldn’t stop the tears.  After the ceremony and lots of pictures, we went to the banquet that the school hosted.  The ride home was exhausting from having stayed out so late the night before, but it was all totally worth it.  Once we were home, we lounged around for a couple of hours and watched tv.  It was too late in the day to take a nap, but it still felt good to do absolutely nothing.  I gave John the book of letters that I put together with the Happy B-day/Congratulation letters his family and friends have written to him over the past couple of months.  He really enjoyed it.  We ordered Chinese food for dinner and got a few groceries at Publix while we waited for our food.  We ate in front of the tv and watched The Office that we missed a few weeks.  It was a very low-key night, but there’s nothing else I would’ve rather been doing than hanging out at home with my husband.