Which one of these is not like the other
Well, we made it. JJ and I made it to my brother's graduation and back all in one piece. Now, being fed and relaxed a little, I'm not too far from going to bed but am awake enough to post a little about the trip. Thursday night was a little bit of a mess for my parents as they had had a Murphy's Law sort of day. My mom woke up and found that she had lost the stone in her ring so after they spent awhile looking for it they finally got on the road. Once on the road, just outside of Columbia, MO they ran into a huge traffic jam. Apparently a cement truck had overturned, the cement mixer part of it had rolled off and as you might imagine, total chaos ensued, which led to stopped traffic for around 2 hours. While they were stuck in the traffic jam I called to tell them that our flight had been delayed because of bad weather. When we arrived, we called and they came to the airport to get us which was also when we found out that the hotel suite my dad had reserved over 2 months ago (knowing that all of St. Louis would be graduating yesterday) was not available so the 2 bedroom, living room, 2 bath and kitchenette, non-smoking suite we were supposed to get was offered to us as 2 bedrooms each with 2 double beds smoking. Not. OK. We finally found a hotel room that was arranged as a bedroom with 2 double beds, and a small living room area, 1 bathroom that was non-smoking and available. So me, JJ, my parents and my grandmother all stayed in that room. As my dad put it, "Cozy." My parents and my grandmother slept on the 2 double beds, I slept on the pullout couch and JJ on the floor. Not too bad in the end actually. Yesterday my brother graduated from college and I got to see my campus again. I miss Wash U ... although now seeing it again reminds me that I have graduated and while I love it, it's going to continue changing and it will never be exactly as it was while I was there. After commencement (speaker: Dick Gephardt) we met up with Bryant and JJ enjoyed his first Ted Drewes experience. Strawberry Ted Drewes. Yum. And THEN -- I saw Laura Hemmer! And Jenny Holmes! And Bitta and Alecia and Natalie ... and then while we were congratulating Bryant we saw Sarah! And Jess! Which was a lot of fun. I haven't seen them in awhile and they are coming to the wedding in July. We went with Bryant to the Earth and Planetary Sciences reception where we found out that there were 5 graduates so he knew everyone and they had cake and champagne. Later on JJ and I went and JJ met Brad and John and it was a lot of fun. We headed over to help Bryant clean up a little and while we were there Bryant's roommate of 3 years, Keith, and his parents were getting him packed up and moved out. As we were leaving JJ said that Keith's dad was looking at him (JJ) and looking at us (the Wongs) and thinking "Which one of these is not like the other ... which one of these just doesn't belong." And now that I think about it we never explained that JJ and I were engaged although they probably figured it out. Last night we had dinner at the Melting Pot. I'll go so far as to say it was a fun experience, but is not something we will be doing often, if ever again, on our own. Looking back on the last couple of days I suddenly am so aware of the passing of time. While I don't consider it aging, seeing the new library, the new football field and stands, new dorms all alongside the old pool, the old AC and the same old people makes me realize that change is happening all around us. I've never been shy of change. While I love the stability of my life, I have also never thought about my life as fraught with change and seeing all the new alongside the existing made me realize that my life IS fraught with change ... it's just change that I'm not there to witness. But I guess if you think about it, lives change, places change, people change and the important thing isn't whether things are changing are not ... it's whether you're changing with them. And if you are there's a good chance you'll still love the old place with the new changes as much as you did the old place itself.