self-portrait

Well, my cousin, A, graduated from High School today. There were a couple moments of grr! with my family, but for the most part everything was nice and everyone was well behaved. The graduation ceremony itself was short, sweet, and to the point. Only a couple of people gave speeches - neither of whom were the Valedictorian or Salutatorian. The kids all vote on who they'd like their speaker to be. The young man they chose was a very, very good speaker, but I felt kind of bad for the Valedictorian and Salutatorian. While they were introduced to everyone, they didn't get to speak. I always thought that was a big part of being Valedictorian, et al: getting to make the graduation speech. It would suck to work that hard to get such good grades, then not get to enjoy it on graduation. Maybe it's just me. I don't know.

After the record one hour ceremony, we all gathered at Genie's Steakhouse for dinner. It was a nice, relaxed meal with lots of joyful chatter and good food. I had the Chicken Marsala, and almost immediately wished I'd ordered a salad. There was at least a whole stick of butter in my meal, which has already come back to haunt me in unpleasant and embarrassing ways. Oh, well. That's what I get. All in all, it was a very nice afternoon/evening, and I'm very happy for and proud of my cousin for all his hard work.

I really wanted to write about how attending my cousin's graduation brought back memories of my own graduation from High School, but I just don't feel up to it tonight. My body is rebelling against the dinner I fed it, and I still have to pack for the paralegal convention I'm attending this weekend. Maybe I'll pick the subject up again someday. Maybe not.