'Tis the season... of graduations...

So on Friday, Rick and I drove up to Abilene to attend our niece's high school graduation. There were 475 kids in the graduating class, and to accommodate all the relatives and friends, the graduation was held in the Abilene Civic Center, which was a big concrete building with stadium seating and no exits near the higher rows. (I was seriously wondering what would happen if someone yelled "fire" in that building... the people up top would have nowhere to run... that building has "makings of a stampede" written all over it...) We were a little worried at the beginning of the graduation -- all 475 kids filed in two by two to the incessantly-repetitious band rendition of "Pomp and Circumstance." And it took eons... 475 kids... slowly walking into the arena... gradually filling up the rows and rows of folding chairs set up on the floor. About halfway through, I felt like running down to the band and pushing the conductor aside so I could speed up the tempo. (C'mon, everyone -- double time! Let's make these kids RUN!) I mean, if it took that long for all of them to walk into the arena, how long would it take for every single name to be called out as the diplomas were awarded?

But surprisingly, the reading of those 475 names went much more quickly than we had anticipated. Although I still felt sorry for the kids with the "Z" names -- they had to wait until everyone else had a diploma before they could finally pick up theirs. I remember how hard it was to wait for everyone to file across the stage at graduation before I finally had my chance -- and my name was only a "W." And I had fewer than 200 kids in my class... But the day I graduated from high school was still one of the happiest days of my life... the fact that I knew I'd NEVER have to go back to that place was a source of much joy... :)

Our trip was quick, but it was great to see our nieces, and Rick's parents, and his sister Donna and her husband Dean... we also got to meet Dean's sister and mom, who were so sweet. On Friday night, the graduation girl Katie serenaded us with a little concert -- she is like crazy, scary talented. She got a guitar for Christmas (THIS past Christmas), and after about six months of playing, the girl sounds like she's been playing her whole life. She's also written a couple dozen songs (the ones she sang for us were AWESOME), and has an amazing voice. She definitely has a future in music, if she chooses to go that route.

A few pictures from this weekend:

Ah, the small towns of West Texas... we drove through about ten towns just like this one on the way up -- how do little towns like this survive? Hmmm...


Checking the program to see how many of those 475 names were left... (and yes, we were sitting up near the top, in the "nowhere to go if there's a fire" rows...)


Donna, Katie and Dean...


Cute picture of Mindy and Katie -- aren't they pretty? :)


Me and Katie... this picture makes me wonder -- could I BE any whiter?? I mean, seriously, is there a shade of white that is whiter than I am in this picture? Somebody hand me the spray-on tan...


Donna's new puppy... soooooo cute...