Graduation

SATURDAY
- Met my cousin at the Pala Casino with my parents. My mom and dad hadn't seen my cousin in probably 8 years. It was like picking up where we left off. My mom and cousin are like mother/daughter- they look a like in many respects. Heard all about my cousin's planned relocation, her difficulties at work, my mom's difficulties at work, some of the cool ins of my cousin's job. Sat and talked at the buffet for 4 hours. The buffet was not that great, but it was nice to chat.
- Finished my masters thesis and printed it
- Worked myself up over the sadness I felt my parents/family was not attending my graduation

SUNDAY
*** Thanks sooooooooooo much guys for all of the comments of love and support this weekend. It really helped bring my spirits up and were really nice to read.

- Up at 6:21am and was really sad
- My mom told me I had to pick up Linda since she was going to my graduation in my mom's place
- Get to Linda's house about 7:38
- We run into a sigalert on the 10 at Dudley where they were shutting down the freeway. Thank goodness for the side access road/exit ramp
- Got to my graduation at 8:30
- Easy parking
- Ran into counseling girl, a girl from school in the parking structure with her daughter, son, and husband
- Beautiful main campus... I'd never stepped foot on it before
- Lots of vendors selling flowers and muffins etc.
- Show Linda how to use my camera and I'm off to line up
- Lots of photos with my friends from school, which was one of the best parts of the day
The photo below is L and I

- Process into the stadium
- Linda is there at the far right yelling my name and trying to pass me roses, which I thought I was going to take some flack from from friends. I wasn't expecting the flowers as no one has ever brought me flowers.
- We make our way to our seats, stand, talk, and then the graduation starts
- Awful graduation speech from the Masters graduate, he is some MA in Public Administration guy who went to another campus. He talked about being drunk, spending lots of holidays drunk, he recommended we go to Starbucks because it feels like a family, he had an awesome internship with a Southern California city, and how he had it so much easier than everyone else. Selfish much? Egotistical?
- Bachelors grads first
- Masters second - I am in the 2nd to last row out of 1000 grads
- As I'm making my way to the stage L helps me adjust my masters sash
- Get up to the stage area and Linda is there taking photos, trying to throw something at me, and yelling to put it on. It lands on the turf, and I put it on. It is a sash with the name of my college. L again helps me get it on
- As we make our way to the side of the stage there are mirrors for the girls to fix their hair etc.
- Photographers snap a photo of us in a tent before we go across the stage
- Walk across the stage- it was all so quick
- Another photo in another tent
- Back to my seat, stop a few times for Linda to snap more photos
- Get a few more photos with L and other friends as I make my way to find Linda
- They have a reception afterwards with fruit (strawberries and grapes), cookies, lemonade and water
- Linda insists I want fruit and cookies
- Linda wants photos of me around some of the trees, in front of the billboard for the campus
- Text my cousin who was already at the restaurant with my aunt and uncle
- Was on a major high after graduation
- We go to TGI Fridays and family had been there for 45 minutes or so and waited for us
- Lots of talk. I sat next to my cousin, across from dad and sis. Linda was down with my mom, aunt, and uncle. Lots of good conversation. Everyone really got along well and no talk about my sister's "professor" position. Cousin was doing well. Fun times.
- We talk and eat for about 3 hours or so
- Take Linda home
- Go to the gym while I take my masters thesis to be bound
- Chatted via text with Mike and he has been showing me around to his coworkers thanks to the pics I texted him. They seem to like what they see...
- Reflecting back I had a great time, but it would have been nice to have family there, and that they weren't I was sad. My graduation already sounded 100x better than my sister's. I am glad that Linda did go to make it a great day, and again, thanks for the awesome comments :-) !!!