Geez, I give up

I keep trying to catch up on all the blogs I missed reading while i was out of town last weekend, but I think maybe I read too many.  So I am just going to have to give up and go forward from present.  See, usually I catch up on my reading before I do my own blogging, but I am sure that is a very silly way to do it because it has led to more than a week of radio silence.  And I have waaaay too much traveling coming up for that kind of nonsense.

See, last weekend my whole family went to South Bend, Indiana to watch my sister graduate from law school.

The Seester

 At Notre Dame the graduation festivities require an entire weekend, not merely one day (which is exhausting, btw).  So on saturday was a prayer service in the basilica then a lunch at the law school then the law school graduation, which was held by the library and Touchdown Jesus.  It was relatively cool, cloudy all day and rained on us off and on.  Ben took a picture of one graduation attendee who was wearing a grocery bag on her head to protect her hair from the rain.  Super classy.  Luckily I had brought my big raincoat and was able to hide inside of it the time the rain did get a little out of hand.

 On sunday was the all school graduation.  Unlike the time my brother graduated from Notre Dame, now it is held in the football stadium.  Now I understand that this allows each gradtuate to have more people than its former indoor location did, but it is miserable.  The sun decided to come out in full force and reflect back at us off the shiny silver flooring they put down to protect the field.  And it started at 9am with all of the audience facing straight in to the sun!  Yay.  And football stadium bleachers do not have backs.  So by the time it ended at almost noon I really thought I was going to die. 

See the seester again waving?

(there was no planned exit strategy so it was a free for all of graduates trying to exit the field)

Its not that I didn't enjoy the graduation.  The one where she actually walked on Saturday was pretty good and far more interesting than the one on sunday.  (No one walks at that one.  Its 2.5+ hours of talking heads)  The best part of sunday was going out for Irish pub food post-graduation.  It was super yummy.  I had a delicious shepherds pie.  Mmmmm.  Actually, all of the food we ate all weekend was really good.  Pizza by Stout in Joplin on the way up, Five Guys in St. Louis, Indian food for lunch the next day with the sister, a steak place for dinner the next night, the irish pub, and mom's cooking sunday night.  Not bad at all.  Oh, and lets not forget the trip to the South Bend Chocolate company.  I really wanted a carmel and chocolate dipped apple, but I didn't see any so I ended up with a white chocolate dipped rice crispie treat. 

This week has been all about playing catch up, doing laundry, trying to keep up with like but also prepare for the next bit of traveling.  This weekend's goal, however, is to relax and have fun.  We plan to see some friends, hang at home a bit and then hit the lake for a while.  What are your weekend plans?