Graduation weekend

So I've been slacking lately - working 40 hours a week is hard! But here it is, the happenings of my graduation weekend. It's kind of long, and if you're family, you might have read this already :) Enjoy!

Saturday morning Mom, Dad, Chris and Erin flew up and met me at Nicola's, which is a really good Italian restaurant that they've been wanting to go back to ever since the first time they came up. After lunch, they followed me to the hotel, where they checked in and changed for the bac. We went to the Baccalaureate Mass and then to the President's reception. It didn't have very good food though, so we ended up at Red Robin for dinner. Yummy!!! Then we went back to the hotel so I could pick up my things to go home and get my stuff for the next day. I was going to go back to the hotel, but it was late, and I was tired, so after I got home I just went to sleep.

The next day I drove to the hotel to pick Mom up, and we went to the airport to pick Grandma up. Then we went back to the hotel to pick the rest of the fam up because they weren't ready to leave when we were. We went to UP and had brunch (with cool juice fountains! I hear the fritata was good too), bought some stuff at the bookstore, took some pictures, then went to the actual ceremony. I had to be in the building by 1:15, and was waiting there for a while. I'm not sure how long everyone else had to wait in the line to get in, but it was LONG!!! I guess that 3500 people do take up a lot of room though :)

The ceremony ended around 4:30ish and after finding my family and taking more pictures, I handed in my gown, got my diploma, and we went to dinner. Dinner was VERY good. We met up with Amie and Nicole at Ringside which is an AMAZING steakhouse. I had filet mignon, and it was soooo good. The wine was good too :)

After dinner we went back to my apartment and I packed PJs and clothes and we went back to the hotel. Monday morning we had the free brunch at the hotel, which was pretty good. Yummy spicy potatos, mmmm. Then grandma, mom and I went grocery shopping for me (b/c that's what you're supposed to do when you visit your child who goes to college far away) and filled up my car with gas. Then we went back to the hotel, watched some TV (they packed), and then went to the airport. They had to drop the car off at the rental place, so I met them at the airport and we had lunch in the food court outside security. Then they went to wait for their flight at the gate, and I went home.

Side note about the Portland Airport parking garage: Each parking spot has a sensor over it, if a car is in the spot, the light in the sensor is red. If there is no car, the light is green. At the beginning of each level there is a sign with how many available spots are on that level and how many are available on other levels. Once you pick a level, at the beginning of each row is the number of available spots in that row (on the rows with both disabled and regular parking, has the number for both) and then, when you find a row with available spots, you look for the spaces with the green lights above them. It's SOOOO cool!!!!! Instead of looking for parking, you just "follow the green light." That's the motto they have all over the parking lot. Also, if you stay there for 1 hour and 1 minute, they charge you for two hours. LAME!!!!