One, two, hooray!

So tonight two very good things happened:

1. My little sister graduated with her GED.

2. Carolina beat Boston giving the Pens home ice advantage in the next round.

Kara’s graduation ceremony was very nice. I was very touched by their commencement speaker. I didn’t get his name, but he is an acclaimed poet who earned his PhD from UK and grew up in the projects in KY. He told the story of a woman who got pregnant at 15, and by 27 had 8 children to look after. She earned her GED and then went on to nursing school after working to earn that first degree. He told her story because she is his mother. He stressed the importance of the GED not being the ending but just the beginning of wonderful opportunities to go further in education. It was really very nice.  Kara is currently enrolled in classes online and I’m very proud of her.

*Hockey talk: I don’t want to go on about this for forever, but holy crap- Boston got kicked out tonight! I’m glad about the Pens getting home ice advantage, Cam Ward is hot, hot, hot. I hope he is worn out and we get up on the series early on. We’ll see—- after all this will effect the Las Vegas wedding plan, or will it??

*Musix Talk:  I could go on forever about how awesome Cracker is-but let’s be real- there just isn’t enough space or time.  Sure enough though, their newest album, Sunrise in the Land of Milk and Honey, is sooooo goood. I really hope to catch them on tour very soon.

Well I’m going to hit the hay- I have lots of research to do tomorrow… and maybe some shoez to buy.

running up that road, running up that hill, running up that building

Finally. I have time some time to breathe and blog again. Well first off: I survived one year of graduate school. I’m halfway finished. After one year of examining everything from southern women in the Civil War, to the Annales school, to Native professional athletes- I have finally decided on a thesis topic. I’m going to be a Twilight Zone scholar. I have a great advisor now who totally supports this venture of the beaten path and I am very excited about immersing myself in episodes of Rod Serling’s masterpiece.  So I’ll spend the summer keeping busy with lots of reading and viewing of these delicious episodes. I can hardly wait!

In other news, tomorrow is my little sister’s graduation. At twenty one, she has become one of the greatest mothers I know and now has her GED and is starting college courses online. I couldn’t be prouder of her and I know her son Josh will be proud of her too!

Speaking of mums, P’s sister is expecting. She and her husband held out on telling anyone until this past Sunday (Mother’s day) to let anyone know. She’ll have the baby in November- so it may be Christmas in LA this year! (I certainly hope it is!)

We’ll be heading out west this summer to go to Las Vegas with A&R before they try to have any babies- and according to P- if the Pens win the Stanley Cup, we’ll have a Vegas wedding.  See neither one of us cares too much about getting married, so we can rest that decision on the way a hockey team plays. P made the mistake of saying this last weekend when he was a little intoxicated, so I have been bringing it up constantly just to irk him a bit more. Honestly, I don’t know that if they did win if I would make him go through with it- like I said it doesn’t matter too much to me. I did decide however, if we were to go through with this, I’d have to have black stones-not diamonds (thank you Leo for making diamonds the most unappealing purchase ever after seeing ‘Blood Diamond’) and perhaps do something even more ridiculous like make it a PENS ring instead of a REGARD ring as folks did in the Pre-WWII era. REGARD rings were a way of giving jewels but not the expensive diamond engagement ring- the letters were spelled out with stones, ruby, emerald, garnet, etc. So I’m thinking something that spelled out PENS would be equally hilarious as the whole notion of getting married in the first place!  The Pens play game seven against the Caps tonight. So this whole thing could be over if they lose tonight anyways. We’ll see.

On a musical note: (what a cute pun I can’t believe I typed that unintentionally)- Cracker released a new album that is so good it will practically melt your face off. Everyone I know needs to listen to it. Patterson Hood is a guest singer on one of the songs- it is the perfect musical sandwich- dbt and cracker on the same album!!

Okay, Whitney, I think I ran out of things to say.  Until next time!