Utah, Graduations and Roadtrips

Clearly, I've been absent for a few days. However, seeing as it was for a good reason, I figure I'll explain the circumstances.

One of my brothers happened to be graduating with his Masters degree, so we all [being my sister, niece and nephew, rents, and myself] piled into our car and headed down on Thursday.

Here goes.

Thursday morning I decided not to get up on time to leave when we planned, so we were all in a cranky mood to begin with. Not only that, but my niece didn't sleep at all on the way down. No biggie. We were new to it. The way down was long, but mostly uneventful. Monotonous would be the best adjective for it. When we arrived, we checked into a hotel, got pretty for graduation commencement, and then skipped our way over to the center for the first ceremony. While it was interesting and the speakers were phenomenal [Elder Russle M. Nelson of the Twelve and Presiden Dieter F. Uchtdorf of the Presidency of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints], the previous six hour car ride wasn't the most invigorating thing in the world. Beceause of this, I sadly fell asleep, but happily awoke in time for Presiden Uchtdorf's address. It. Was. Awesome. Because I get camera happy, I always end up taking a million pictures of whoever will be in them with me, and in this case it was my mom.

After the ceremony and hours upon hours of no food, we all shimmied to an abhorred buffet. Abhorred, as in my least favorite flavor of all. Ridiculously, my two plates consisted solely of vegetables and strictly lean proteins, i.e. beans. The thing about buffets isn't that it's an opportunity to eat copious amounts of food, it's that the variety of food is catered towards the red-meat/lots-of-sugar dieted people. Although there is the option of a salad bar, there's something restricting about being devoted specifically to s.a.l.a.d. Weak sauce....

The next day [I had stayed with my beautiful brother and his adorable wife] we all gathered at their minute apartment to help clean it. Sadly, I clean really well. I know. Pathetic. I have all of the skills to be the perfect domestic engineer, I just abhor utilizing them. I cook. I bake. I clean. I glam. I'm a guy magnet. Haha. Jk.

Several grungies and a graduation later [the one where the grads walked and had their names read and all that jazz], we were all running on fumes and no protein. That makes for an angry Black mob. While I love being vegetarian, I absolutely disdain when my family says "Let's go __________ to eat" when they know perfectly well they offer no protein alternatives. Oh well. As life is. In which case, I was overjoyed when Friday night we ate at a joint by the name of Guru's, which was totally my vibe. Happily, they had an amazing veg menu, and tasted almost better [if not the same] as mine. :D I was thoroughly amazed by the deliciousness of the grub and the ethereal atmosphere emitted.

Saturday morning before we hit the interstate we stopped off at a museum of natural life. It. Was. Fabulous. I had been to it before, but they had new animals which I hadn't seen last time. Happily, there was an elephant. I got a [few] pictures of it. :D I absoltuely adore elephants. Weird, right? Not really. I.E. I have a statuette of an elephant named Earl on my desk. There was also a rhinocerous. [: They're not as cool, but they're cooler than me, so it all evens out.

Lastly, after about seven hours of drama and attitudes, we pulled into our driveway. I have to say that although I absoltuely adore traveling, there's nothing quite comparable to sleeping in my own bed, facing my own direct, again.

Now I can move on with my life and get back to a regular blog schedule. Much love and Cheers! :D

P.S. I forgot to mention how absolutely heinous hotels are! I hate not being in control of the direction of my BED!!!! BUT! they make for great backdrops for my adorable kids. :D <3>P.P.S. Might I add that this was the eighth full length graduation I've attended, and the third for this brother. It was a blast, but as always, it was loooooooooooooong! Love him though. So I'd do it any day for him.