georion23

Warning: this will be very picture-heavy.

Graduation started with my parents coming into town and meeting me up at work so they could take a look around LPI and meet everyone. Then we got some lunch and headed up to my department's graduation reception at Rice. I got to see Janne and Francis before they headed back to France and one of my favorite students, Jordan.

Francis, me, and Janne (Mom's camera)

Janne and me (iPhone)

Jordan and me (Mom's camera)

It started pouring down rain as we were leaving Rice. In the case of rain during graduation the next morning, it would have been moved from the lawn inside, and only two people per student would be allowed to attend. This was a problem as I had my parents, my brother, my aunt, uncle, and cousin Erin. And since I would have been up most of the night preparing for the party at my apartment and then had to have gotten up at 5am to be up at Rice in time (not to mention my parents have seen me graduate three times prior to this one), we decided to skip the ceremony and get some breakfast and just hang out at my place. It was a hard decision for me, since it will most likely be my last graduation, and I solicited opinions from Em, Sara, Mom, Dad, Grandma, Steph... pretty much anyone who would talk to me. I think it ended up being the right decision, though. We actually ended up getting to spend more time together than if we had gone to the ceremony.

The actual party was lovely. Mom and Andy helped me quite a bit with the food. Dad even ironed my shirt because I was too busy cooking to do it. And Matthew got the plates and silverware out and lit candles around the apartment and didn't burn down the place. Erin came in and helped make spinach artichoke dip, Steph and Christi helped set up the drinks, and Justin corralled the cats into the guest room. Once all that insanity settled down, it was fantastic. We had enough food to feed a small army: puff pastry breadsticks (sesame seed and parmesan cheese), asparagus spears wrapped in puff pastry strips and baked, cantaloupe balls wrapped in prosciutto, cherry tomato-marinated mozzarella ball-basil skewers, chocolate-covered walnut cream (semi-sweet, milk, and white chocolate varieties), the aforementioned spinach artichoke dip with pita chips, an assortment of olives, some grapes, wine, soda, and beer. Most of the recipes were from a cookbook Steph lent me, and she helped me come up with some good wine choices. Juliane and Justin brought over several desserts, including a sea turtle cake (awesome!!). It was quite the successful event. Pictures are below.

some of the food