We started the day with a delicious breakfast at a local deli then returned home to get ready for the festivities. KAT needed to get to the high school an hour in advance, and none of us thought to look for or ask about our admittance tickets. Each graduate was allowed only five. When we arrived at the school I realized we couldn’t get into the gym without a ticket and began to panic that I would miss her ceremony. I called her. I called her friends. I looked for Joe. No KAT. No friends. No Joe. This wasn’t looking good. FINALLY I saw Joe stand up and wave at us. I used my best most desperate and pleading voice to ask if I could go into the gym just long enough to get the tickets for everyone else and was gained temporary admittance. Joe must have recognized the panic in my face because he immediately informed me that he had given the tickets to a complete stranger to hold until she saw someone who looked like us looking for missing tickets. Fortunately I remembered someone looking like she was looking for someone looking for someone like her so I was able to quickly retrieve the tickets and return with the entire family to the seats Joe was holding for us.
Can we talk hot? As in, the place was so hot and humid it felt as though we were watching KAT graduate from within a sauna. Seriously. I was very concerned about the frail and elderly and people like me who panic in large crowds with no hope for escape should an emergency erupt. Fortunately it was a small graduating class of about 300. Also fortunately, I was distracted by pride when the Pledge of Allegiance was recited in its entirety, including the “In God We Trust” part, and by the fact that 93% of her PUBLIC high school is moving on to higher ed next year and 6% are going directly into the military. What a great reminder of why we picked this community to which to move our girls.
After the ceremony, KAT had two graduation parties to attend and an all-night party hosted by the PTO, so Leah, Jess, Lou and I went to P-Town for the next 24-hours while Joe hung out waiting for the partying to end.
