Graduation Season and a Sister Visit

Highlights since we last spoke:

Rob's mom and dad were in town for 2 1/2 glorious days to celebrate graduation with us! We ate well, we drank better (his mom is a very discriminating red wine drinker and his dad is a lager buff). We had crazy big storms on Friday morning and overnight, but it cleared up before Saturday morning graduation. We had to muck our way through a swamp to get to seats on the lawn, but the ceremony was outside and the bright blue sky was gorgeous! Rob and his two best buddies got a "Ta Da!" style horn-quintet chord played for each of them during the Friday Doctoral Hooding Ceremony (epic), and that was topped by getting to high-five Neil DeGrasse Tyson, who was the commencement speaker, as they walked across the graduation stage (epic-er).

The three graduates hosted a BBQ in our friends' backyard for only our families and their main composition professors and it was nothing short of the perfect way to celebrate their hard work and accomplishments. They're all such laid back guys and so family oriented; anything else, like a dinner out, wouldn't have felt like the right conclusion to their four years together. Spending time with the other two guys' families was a real treat. Oh, and the plethora of grilled dinner options was pretty much the best.

My sister got engaged a few months ago and they plan to wed before we depart for China. Since they had lived in China and Hong Kong before their move back to the States, they wanted to find a way to incude their friends from all over on their special day, even if they're halfway around the world. So, in the tradition of Chinese FuXi (wished for luck and prosperity), she wants to send out red hanging tags that friends and far away family can write notes on and they'll all be tied to a cord at the wedding. With my arsenal of cutting mats and exacto blades, I volunteered to work on the project. And then she got really sad that she wasn't able to work on wedding projects alongside sisters. So, a ticket was booked with miles and less than 48 hours later, she was hanging out in my living room. I got sister time! I got to spend time talking, giggling, crying, and getting excited about the next year for each of us with my sister standing in the same room as me! And she got over 250 red mat board hangtags to include in mailings to her friends. And, now, I wouldn't be at all shocked if she showed up in Phoenix to work on invitations with our other sister.

My dainty little cat also got hold of a gecko and ate him. That was thrilling.

This week was not at all what I expected, but the mix of good and bad (uugh, work is getting tricky with end-of-the-school-year-grant-reporting) makes me tired and happy.