Monday, May 31, 2010

PART TWO — THE GRADUATION

Our number one reason for our trip to Arkansas, was to see my nephew graduate high school. He is the eldest of my nephew's and nieces and I remember well taking care of him at a young age while his mom—my sister—had to work. He'll be entering the Armed Forces this summer, going to boot camp for the Army. He follows in his mother's footsteps doing this at a time when many are trying to get out of the military. If he plays his cards right he can make a career out of this decision. But I digress…

I only vaguely remember my own high school graduation. It was early in the morning and I really didn't like high school. The only reason I went or did well was to get into college. I knew from a very young age that I was going to attend university. My nephew's graduation was fairly short, held indoors in the evening due to heavy rains, and had at least 3 prayers throughout. Not sure how I feel about this. It is a public school and I had though separation of church and state was law? On one hand, I'm sure they still have Halloween and Christmas parties, on the other, it was weird to hear so many prayers. Different part of the world I guess…

After graduation, we headed to Chilies for the graduation dinner. We had a party of 8 to seat and my sister called ahead twice; once to see if they took reservations and a second time to tell them we were on our way, which is what they asked us to do to prepare (because, no, they didn't take reservations). We pile into the restaurant and take a seat in the waiting area. Will we seperate into sepeart tables? No, we won't. Ok, there'll be a table just as soon as possible. We wait. And wait. And wait some more. Hey, aren't those people getting seated before us? Aren't there about 7 people in that group? What's going on here. The host finally stops by and says completley deadpan, "I'm sorry, I compleelty forgot all about you." It's been about 30-40 minutes now. OK… manager comes out, "We'll really take care of you." So, now another 30-40 minutes after the original host says for at least the third time "are you sure you won't do two seperate tables?" we finally are seated. The taking care of came in the form of free chips. Whoopdie friggin doo. Oh well. Both L and I are patient people and we had no where to be that evening. L was looking forward to a Presidente Margaritta. Uh oh. This is a dry county. Whoops! That's OK, he gets enough Margarittas at home.

Overall, the graduation was nice and I'm happy to see my nephew moving on from High School. I wish him the best as he moves forward with his life.

Up next, a wedding.

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