Best Party Ever

Holy sweet merciful glaven on a cracker, what a blowout. Here's what I received.

$345 total in cash and checks

Two Borders gift cards, one $50, one unmarked

A copy of one of my professors' book

Timelines of World History

$20 Fred Meyer gift card (for those of you outside the area, think Super Wal Mart, but with class)

scratch tickets, coffee chain gift cards, Guinness six-pack

Beach trip with co-worker

Radio Shack gift card

mini Leatherman tool

1882 edition of Cicero's Orations, in Latin

Wood and brass clock with 1 Corinthians 9:24 written in gold letters

bottle of English gin

It was a pretty outstanding haul. The amazing gifts weren't the greatest part of the evening, though. Here are what the real highlights were:

A house full of people who were there solely because they were proud of me and think I'm awesome.

My parents finally being able to meet Professor Augustus (whose classes I've taken for four years) and Colonel Schoutter (whose classes I've taken for two years).

Getting to see Rampage and his wife, and Big Red and his wife, neither of whom I see often enough. (If you'll remember, the last time I saw Rampage was at his wedding, and before that was last June.)

Of course, there were some drawbacks to the evening that must be noted.

My brother Twitley is in Wyoming, and though I spoke to him very briefly on the phone, and he'll be back next Friday for a couple of weeks, he wasn't able to be here. So far he's missed at least four major occasions that he should have been around for.

My grandfather, whose hard work on the farm over the course of many, many years paid most of my way through college, died in January; it doesn't sit well with me that the individual who was most responsible for me finishing college wasn't able to see it actually happen.

My great-grandmother, the former family matriarch and the first alumnus of [Generic University] in any branch of my family, died in April. If she'd lived to see this, she still wouldn't have known what had happened, as she'd been in mental decline for a number of years, but she would have been very proud. It's partially redeemed by the fact that my great-great aunt, her sister and successor as family matriarch, and obviously a member of the same generation, was there; this makes three generations of [Generic University] graduates on that side of the family.

Majo should have been alive and well, and going absolutely nuts out in her kennel at the sight of all sorts of new people to go meet. I found a few pictures of her as I was going through old photos for a couple of little albums of pictures of me in college.

It's been a long day, it's been a long week, and it's been a long five years. It's not quite over, but the end is in sight.

You know, I wouldn't let my mother do anything for me when I graduated from high school because I didn't feel I'd accomplished much of anything. I don't feel that for this milestone. I've slacked off, I've skipped classes, but for the most part I've worked very hard to accomplish this, and it was outstanding to be able to celebrate it with some of the most important people I've known over nearly twenty-three years.