Graduation news

We had a little household emergency yesterday. It's kind of hard to explain, but I ended up in the middle of baking cookies, with a dishwasher full of 2-day old dishes that was really starting to smell, a broken garbage disposal and therefore a non-functioning dishwasher. (side note: I have no idea why a broken garbage disposal means the dishwasher doesn't work either; another side note: I don't really care) Due to Daniel's extremely busy schedule, and the sharing of one car, I had exactly 30 minutes to drive to Home Depot and pick out a new garbage disposal. I HATE Home Depot. I walk into that store, and I'm instantly lost and confused. Seriously, how can there be so many parts that look exactly the same? Whenever we go there we end up a) spending way too much money, b) buying the wrong thing, c) buying something we really don't need, or e) all of the above. So I had 30 minutes to navigate the store, find the garbage disposals, and pick the right one so that Daniel could come home from class that night at 10pm and install it. Yes, I know, we could have actually washed the dishes by hand. But honestly, I hate washing the dishes. I will do just about anything to avoid that. Especially 2-day old smelly ones.

I got home just in time for Daniel to take the car and get to class. And while Daniel was in class I did end up washing most of the dishes. Just the ones I dirties up by baking cookies. And a few of the really smelly ones in the dishwasher. I was proud of myself for being an adult and taking care of things. Even though I know nothing about garbage disposals and hate washing the dishes. I was exceedingly proud of myself when I left the kitchen full of freshly baked cookies and not one dirty dish. So Daniel spent the morning installing the new garbage disposal. I don't know what I would do without him. Could I really install it? Maybe if I had to. One more reason I am extremely grateful I had a life partner before I moved into a house. Daniel is so handy! So, crisis averted and our kitchen is back in working order.

All of this house fixing has made me realize that in 6 weeks almost my entire family will be in Denver at the same time! That has never happened! The reason is that Daniel and I are both graduating. Originally, it was just me graduating. Daniel is in a special program where he gets both his undergraduate and his master's degree at once after 5 years. So he wasn't going to walk. But the University called him a few days ago and told him that legally they aren't allowed to keep him as an undergraduate, so he has to graduate with his class. However, since they already promised him undergraduate status, with undergraduate tuition and his original financial aid package, they will credit him for all of that. So in essence, he gets to walk with me, get his B.A. in tuba performance, but he still doesn't have to pay graduate tuition or lose any of his financial aid!

I didn't even realize how subconsciously sad I was that he wasn't graduating with me. We've hit every major life milestone together, and this would be one of the first (besides our first term in college) that we didn't get to experience together. But now we'll have another graduation picture to match our high school one! And that means that his parents are going to come. So his parents, my parents, my grandparents, my aunt and uncle, and my sister will all be here for graduation at the beginning of June. Which means we will have some major house cleaning to do for sure! But I am so excited. We get to celebrate this achievement together. Everything is better when it's shared with those you love.