Cornell Graduation

I'll put some photos in here later but right now I'll just boast about the wonderful weekend that Shelley arranged for us.  Nicole is a brilliant young lady who was hired by Locheed before she even graduated from college with her BA.  She's such a valued employee that her company paid for her to get her Masters at Cornell University (they did the same for Sam).

Her graduation ceremony was this past weekend and Shelley rented a gorgeous house right on the finger lakes of New York State (around Ithica) for her, John, Nicole, Sam, Lisette, Danny, Carmen, Juan, Aeron, and me.  Aeron and I drove down together...loved every second of my time with her!

We got to the stadium just in time to hear Bill Nye the science guy give a fun and educational speech.  We all thought the full ceremony would be on Sunday so most of us (thankfully Shelley, John, Nicole and Sam went back for what they thought would be just a little get-together) decided to just go back to the house for the evening.  Nicole came home with a medal and it turned out that the full graduation ceremony had been that evening so we missed it.  Nicole was in tears but I think we made her realize we were all there to celebrate her success and the ceremony wasn't that important to us (it kind of was but she was so upset).

Carmen, Juan, Aeron, and I had gone to one of the wineries up the road from the house for pizza and beer (water for me).  Then Juan and Aeron went grocery shopping for a the few things we'd need at the house.  There was a lot of just great conversation with some of the family I love and I never felt it was a wasted trip.  

On Sunday morning we all went back to the university...it is massive!  The streets were filled with grads of every kind and their families.  It just made you proud of all of them to have accomplished what they had with their young lives and you knew the whole world was open for them in the future.

We toured around a bit but Carmen has COPD and gets winded easily and I have my broken toe so we couldn't venture far on foot.  Many of the roads were closed off because of ongoing ceremonies so we just stayed around the church where Nicole had her ceremony the evening before.  She acted out a  fake one so we could see how she had looked.  She is such a clown, always going for the laugh and not worrying one bit about contorting her absolutely beautiful face.  This reminds me of Lucille Ball who was an extremely beautiful woman but who didn't care how she looked when she made people laugh.

Aeron and I left for home from the university but the rest of them went back to the rental for one more day.  What a joyful trip!  

I don't see Aeron near as often as I'd like and it's never one-on- one time.  The drive down took about 5 hours and then another 5 hours back home so it was wonderful time for me and I hope for Aeron, too.

I know I brag a lot about our family and extended family but we really are blessed to have such good people in our lives.  I thank the fates that brought me these people I love so much.