may is flying by...

so i finally have a few minutes to write about my last two weekends. it's been crazy busy lately, as usual, but we've hit a much needed quiet evening and i'm thrilled just to have a moment to catch my breath.

i took a half day last friday and headed down to charleston, sc, with linda for ashley's bridesmaid weekend. it was a gorgeous day, we drove on down to kiawah island where we were staying and met the rest of the girls for dinner at the king street grill, a local place. we had thought about doing a haunted ghost tour of downtown charleston, but time was not on our side and we were unable to make it. instead, we spent friday evening hanging out at the condo and catching up.

saturday, we headed down to the beach for a couple of hours in the morning and after lunch, linda and i set off to the downtown area to do a little sight-seeing. being fair-skinned ladies, we knew we couldn't handle a whole day in the sun, so we were up for doing the touristy thing at the old market, rainbow row and the battery. it was the best way to spend the afternoon and i took a ton of pictures. see the rest on flickr!


we got back in time to get cleaned up for dinner in downtown charleston and taking a few group pictures. we HAD to show off our matching "bride and bridesmaid" tanks that ashley made for us--rhinestones and all.

we went out to tbonz downtown for dinner where linda and i split an awesome shrimp and chicken dish and geared up for the rest of the night. there were definitely a couple dozen bachelorette parties in charleston that weekend, so it seemed like we were running into another group every place we went. we all had a great time, though, and i was so happy to be a part of that special night with ashley. just two weeks until her wedding!

so after another wild week of testing, planning for the end of the year and field trips, i took this friday off for alan's graduation. his departmental graduation for the school of music was friday at noon, and then the main ceremony for the whole university was today at 10 in the football stadium. we had family coming in for the ceremony on friday, and it was a much smaller production that what we attended today. it was definitely cool to see alan walk across the stage, and i also got to use it for a reflector slideshow, so you can check out the photos here. we had a reception at the school of music afterwards, and then we got ready for a family cookout at our house with rachel's family.



and today was the big ceremony, where i got to flash the press pass and get some great pictures from the field. those haven't been posted on reflector yet, but i had an awesome time and felt like quite the "professional" out there with the other big guys. and in all, i got paid to attend and take pictures at two events that i would have attended otherwise. i'll go outside the plan for pitt community college's graduation tomorrow night.
so congratulations to all of the spring 2008 graduates and here's to the future!

(don't forget mother's day tomorrow!)

*p.s. i just got the link for commencement photos that are up here

and... seriously, i had nothing to do with this. the one picture of alan that i did throw in was not identified in any manner... but who did they put up on the "graduation galleries" front page? my little brother getting his own screen time :)