Places to go, people to see!

I started out the day with more sod!  We’re soaking the ground so it makes the weeds easier to pull, once they’re all up, we lay the next row of sod, then lay on that as we pull the weeds to put the next row down.  This is going to take forever!  It’ll be worth it though!

We paused in the middle of the sod laying to clean out my truck.  Mom scrubbed the inside while I vaccummed the whole thing out!  It looks a lot better, but it still needs some of that nifty dash and leather cleaner stuff that makes everything all shiney and pretty!  We also washed the outside, I haven’t washed my Explorer since I got it, so the poor thing really needed a bath!!     

When we were done with that, we laid a little more sod, then I went and took a shower and did my hair.  I took clothes to change into, since the graduation wasn’t until 7pm, and I was leaving at 2pm, so I was just going to change into my skirt when it was time to go! 

The drive to Ephrata went well.  There was a little road construction, well, tore up roads from the construction, but no actual work going on, so I didn’t have to stop.  I like driving more now that I’ve got a nice car!  Cruise control is one of the best things ever invented!  That and air conditioning!  Oh, and the ability to pass someone without having to wait for the biggest clear spot immaginable!! 

As I was driving there I was getting a little nervous.  I was wondering if mom was right, if I shouldn’t have agreed to both nights without being sure.  Then I started wondering if my initial freak out had any real reasoning behind it.  I thought about that for a while, and concluded that my reaction was caused by residual emotional scarring, and was in no way based on anything that Luke had done or said.  He’s been nothing but sweet to me, which was part of the trigger, since Jake was so sweet in the beginning too, though I’m fairly certain the similarities end there!  I calmed down a bit after I realized all of this, and tried to focus on being happy about getting to see him again and spending some real quality time together and getting to know one another better.  By the time I got to his house I was only a little nervous, and when I saw Luke come out with a big grin on his face I was instantly put at ease.  ~s~  It was really good to see him again! 

I met his dad briefly, he was getting ready to leave as soon as graduation was over, so we didn’t talk much.  Luke and I went down stairs to his room.  I was trying to make friends with his little dog Zepplin, but then I had some kind of ADD moment and decided to squirt my inhaler in the poor dog’s face.  ~rolling my eyes~  I swear, I have no idea what the hell came over me!  It was so mean!  Maybe even meaner because Luke and I were cracking up over it, all the while I’m apologizing for being such a dumb kid!  (I swear to god, that’s something a kid would do!  I blame the sleep depravation!)

Here’s Zep saying "back off bitch!  He’s mine!"

Unfortunately for Zep, I’m a pretty girl, and pretty girls always win!  ~s~  Luke kicked him out so we could make out for a while.  ~s~  Though it didn’t go too far, we still had a graduation to go to, and I told Luke not to mess up my hair!! ~L~

Luke showed me the invitation to his friend’s wedding, he still hadn’t RSVP’d, so I grabbed the reply card, marked the "sorry, we will not be attending" line, Luke had been joking about doing that, since he’s the best man, he knew they wouldn’t take it seriously!  I drew and arrow to turn it over, and wrote, "just kidding!  Of course we’ll be there!  I can’t wait to meet you both and run off to Vegas with Luke!  *heart* Lisa, then I had Luke sign it too.  ~L~ I’m all ready doing how my mom did, writing things out and having dad add his signature to the bottom!  I’m a little suprized at myself for RSVPing myself to go to his friends wedding in August… Now I hope to god nothing goes wrong, that would suck! 

On the way to the graduation I decided I had to have an iced latte.  I needed something cold and something to wake me up!  He bought me one at the little coffee stand he frequents, and they have awesome coffee!  If they were in Wenatchee, I’d go to them all the damn time!  Heck with starbucks, these guys have a punch card!!  ~L~

When we got close to the high school, Luke pointed out a spot and told me to park there, since this was proabbly as close as we were going to get!  (I drove because I have the car with air conditioning!!)  I really like a guy who doesn’t circle around a hundred times looking for a closer spot!  We walked the rest of the way to the high school, and I was glad to see that the bleachers were in the shade at lest!  Though I felt sorry for the poor graduates who had to sit on metal folding chairs out in the sun!  Ugh!  The graduation was all right, I mean what graduation is ever a thrilling event?  Sweat was dripping down my legs, which was a very odd sensation, and kinda gross! 

I kept holding my iced latte against my wrists because I read somewhere that that’s supposed to help cool you down.  I don’t know if it really worked, but it did feel good!  Luke and I managed to keep ourselves entertained, I kept making snarky comments, and we were laughing and holding hands, and sitting all close together, despite the heat!  I didn’t get a picture of his sister getting her diploma, since he didn’t point her out before hand!  Of course we were at a bit of a distance, and those kids all start looking the same in their black gowns!  I did get a good picture of the forbidden graduation cap toss though!  I heard that they aren’t supposed to do that any more, of course I heard when I graduated from high school that we weren’t supposed to do that either, but we did!  I mean how can you snuff out a time honored tradition like the graduation cap toss?  Ain’t gonna happen!     

After the graduation was over, we tried to find his family in the crowd, but no luck, so we just drove out to his mom’s place.  It was just his mom and step dad, his sister (Miriam/Mim) her boyfriend (I’m guessing that’s who he was!) a girl who I think was their step sister, or just one of Mim’s friends, I’m not sure, then Luke’s brother Jessie.  (He’s mentally handicapped, the only interaction I had with him is Luke introducing us, then he sat in the house rather that outside with everyone else.)  Later, one of their cousin’s showed up, and I met her and her husband, but that was it.  From the way Luke was talking before, I was expecting something more like what happens when my family gets together!  Like 15 people at least!  So this was cake.  Parents love me anyway, and very seldom do I meet anyone that doesn’t like me! (I’m so darn full of myself!!)   

They had one of those self contained fire pit things, whi

ch was lit probably sooner than it needed to be.  (It was still pretty warm out!)  It was pretty cozy though, we all sat around and chatted, had some hamburgers, drank some beer and had a nice time.  Luke had a card for his sister, so he gave it to her along with the little album that I made.  (Which, by the way, he was impressed by, so I figured even if she didn’t love it, I got points from him for doing something that nice for her!)  She flipped through it, but didn’t say much.  I don’t think she realized that I’d made it, a few days later she did send me a message and told me that she really liked it!  When we left, Luke’s mom hugged me.  ~s~ I think I’m in!

Of course after that, we went back to Luke’s, and I’ll just leave the details up to your imagination!