Belle Rae

Friday happened. Woke up, and went to go get my massage. That was wonderful; she realized I was ticklish and managed to figure out a way to not tickle me. Headed back and slept for a bit, then did some more packing and got dressed for the semi-formal boat cruise. Went to Eckman mall for free pizza and then loaded into the busses. This time we had coach busses, which was extremely nice. Almost immediately I put in my headphones and fell asleep for the majority of the 2 hour bus ride to Hudson, Wisconsin. Unfortunately, Sybylla's iPod froze and so she couldn't listen to it. Got there, loaded into the boat, and got a table right near the door to the front of the boat. Spent the night talking, wandering around, enjoying the scenery, and waiting in lines for food, drinks, and the bathroom. Slept on the bus ride home as well; it was a fun night.

Saturday was long and boring. Basically bought food from the Caf, cleaned and packed, and then watched a movie and some Firefly with Sybylla before heading to bed.

Sunday was the big day. Got up, got dressed, and waited for the family to arrive. Once they did we headed over to the Country Kitchen to get some breakfast. Then back up the hill where we started some packing into the car and partial cleaning. And finally, I put on my gown, got help figuring out the hood, and headed to the Chapel to line up with my classmates. It was alphabetical and they allotted over an hour just to get into the line. And my idiotic classmates needed it! I couldn't believe how long it took people to figure out how to line up alphabetically. And then we all learned how to do our hoods the correct way. Then we proceeded around Old Main and then towards the stadium and into our seats. Names called, crossed the stage, shook hands with all the big wigs, and then went down into the faculty area. Once down there I hit the Art Department first and shook hands with Stan and got a hug from Bruce, then Biology was right next in line. Got my degree/diploma from Pam and went down the line shaking hands with the rest of the professors. After that we listened to more speakers and then headed to the scoreboard to meet up with the family. Took tons of pictures and then went to the reception with each of the departments. Eventually my family got bored and went back to my room to keep packing and cleaning while I kept talking to people. Walked back to the room with Sybylla and checked out. Family and I then headed down to Whiskey River (restaurant) for the after-graduation party given by Sarah and her family. Ate good food, took lots of pictures, and eventually headed home.

On Monday Megan and I drove all the way down to Des Moines to our uncle's house where we met all five of the cute little lab puppies (3 black and 2 yellow). Spent awhile playing with the pile of puppies but eventually we headed towards home with our new yellow female puppy, Belle. We set up the kennel in the backseat and one of us drove while the other sat in the back with her. We stopped at nearly every rest area on the way back, making the drive about an hour longer than it should have been, but we wanted to make sure there weren't any puppy accidents on the way home. As soon as we got home, mom took Belle in her arms and she immediately fell asleep. We watched her running across the yard and we all laughed at her big ears flopping as she ran. When we discussed what her middle name should be, dad suggested "Ears" because of that. But then I thought we should mix up the letters and have her middle name be Rea (like ray-a) but they didn't like that. Someone then suggested we reverse the letters and have it be Rae. Sara didn't like it much but the rest of us thought it was pretty clever so that's what we ended up deciding. Belle Rae. That night Megan and I slept in the family room and I got up about every two hours when Belle cried to let her outside.

On Tuesday I mostly just watched Belle and hung around the house. At one point Megan, Belle, and I went on a little walk over to the new Petco by Wal-Mart. Belle walked for a bit and then we also carried her and she rode in a backpack as well. While there we got her some puppy shampoo, a little blue collar with Hawaiian white flowers and a little ID tag. Later that night, my paternal grandparents arrived after a long drive from Illinois (and my cousin's high school grad party). Megan and I slept downstairs again to let Belle out.

Wednesday was mostly a blur. Not much happened, other than a lot of puppywatching by me and a couple of accidents.

Today a lot more nothing happened, other than early this morning I finally started getting cranky about the puppy. 3 nights with no REM sleep can do that to you I suppose. Later, Jackie and her mom stopped over to see Belle. She was really there for me when Jazzy died, and I was sad to learn that just a few weeks ago her dog Kirby died. Anyway, the rest of the day was spent being lazy. I actually started this post hours ago and just keep leaving it and coming back to it. Basically, the moral of the story is that I'm lazy and that my puppy is cuter than the one on the Cottonelle toilet paper commercials. I'll add pictures as soon as the website lets me...