Today was a very special day that saw us pack up the Escape and fly down I-95 to attend Daddy’s sister’s graduation ceremony at the Crown Coliseum in Fayetteville.
We had great seats for this spectacle on in Section 117 on the side of the ice where the penalty boxes are located when they have the boards up for Cape Fear FireAntz games. If you notice a yellow line at the bottom of some walls, that’s the dasher boards for the walls that enclose the rink that have some sort of white muslin draped over them to form half-walls.
Now we know that Daddy is a bit of a nutball when it comes to hockey (go ‘Canes!) but the reason that I mention this is that there is a rule that if you yell out or cheer for your kid as they’re crossing the stage, the security people and/or Sheriff’s deputies (depending on who is closer) will give that party a ten minute misconduct and a game misconduct and send them packing. It gets worse for the poor student… their diploma is held pending a parent conference. I can understand that it’s a dignified ceremony but come on…the kid’s been in school for over twelve years! Let them enjoy a moment where they’re the star of the show and are happy before allowing real life to intrude! We didn’t really understand the rule when we saw Uncle Ben cross that same stage and we’re still mystified by it.
Now, I promised Meghann that I wouldn’t do anything to get her diploma held…but I really couldn’t stop Nicholas if he started getting into one of his little happy fits when she crossed the stage. 🙂
We needn’t have worried on that score…her graduating class probably set a new record for game misconducts for the spectators. It’s almost funny, really…the party will start yelling…and then run toward the security person about to run them off! An unofficial count was 25 game misconducts handed out…Ben’s cermony was closer to 15 or so. 🙂
But in the end, Daddy’s little sister walked across that stage and Daddy isn’t ashamed to admit that he was crying more than a little bit (the camera wasn’t too thrilled about the tears…oh well!). That day had been a long time coming and it’ll be a while before the Class of 2021 takes their place in the ceremony and walks across the stage. I find that I’m rather looking forward to it for some strange reason. We’re just hoping that Nicholas’ school treats it as a joyous occasion rather than a bit of a funeral. 🙂
We then popped out to a local Mexican restaurant for an after-ceremony lunch. After lunch, we had a bit of time to kill before meeting up with the family for dinner so we went round and I showed Mommy some of the sights when I was growing up. We then headed downtown and managed to find one of her former co-workers when she worked in Fayetteville. No, we’re really not stalkers and we usually call well in advance but the phone numbers were for one person in St. Pauls and the other somewhere else in downtown. But that’s all right, we hung out with her delightful friend and hopefully we’ll get to do it again sometime. Just without doing the stalker bit, eh?
Dinner with the family was at Tai Sho which is a Japanese steakhouse… and I love those teppan ovens. If I had mucho buck$, I’d have one of those put in the dining room. But sadly, I don’t…so don’t be disappointed when you don’t see one in the dining room. But I do sacrifice various forms of meat to the propane gods every now and then and that’ll have to do. 🙂
We got home late that night and we were well tired. But congratulations to Aunt Meghann and the rest of the Class of 2004!
