5/14/2005 12:34:00 AM|||Jonthon|||

I was up bright and early in the mornign to shower and shave. I grabbed a chocolate chip cookie I had made and a Starbucks Frappucino. I headed out to the International Cafe Parking Lot, where Jonnel and I had agreed to meet. Maria Speiser came out, headed to the same place, and chatted with me until jonnel showed up. I was dressed in my grad gown the whole time, and people kept saying congratulations. If they only knew how hung over I was... Anyway, when Jonnel showed up we headed right to Paige, where the Convocation had been relocated due to the recent rains. Before we headed in, we gave my a picture book as a gift. It was wrapped with a photo binding of a picture she had taken of me on a day I was crabby. It was an incredibly long, boring ceremony. The speakers were all corporate donors, except the token academic who didn't even have anything to do with MU (he didn't even live in the US). Also, let me just note that far too many people are given Honors awards at my university.

Afterward, I introduced Jonnel to my Dad and Oliver (everyone else headed to Wal-Mart to get a picnick lunch together). I hugged Jonnel goodbye, then we headed to the hotel to turn off the water they had purposefully left on after finding out they were being charged for two nights. Then we headed back to my house. Oliver and his friend got started on the transmission while I moved furniture around and the shoppers prepared the lunch. Harley and Kristin showed up, met the family, had some sandwiches, and were off. Then I went to work on the transmission. After a while, the Mattoon crew headed out. I ended up mowing our 2 1/2 feet of lawn throughout the day, and we were able to get the transmission in and make three trips to auto zone as well. Around 9:30, they all headed out.

So Miller and I headed out, to the Rancho. I had seen a gorgeous girl in their the other day working, and it seemed like we were flirting to Kristin...but I hadn't seen there in their since. She was, of course, in there this time. I broke the ice and started talking to her, and found out that she is a Med Tech who has traveled to India, and her name is Leilani. I was feeling somewhat blown away by how awesome she was, which figured, since she then told me it was her last day, and that she was moving back to St. Louis. I enjoyed my Chicken Chimichanga, and ended up talking to her twice more. Finally, John and I headed out to hit the bar.

Our choice was Big 12, and the walk began. When we arrived, we found Lesley, Maice and her friend at the bar right away. It was penny pitchers. Basically, this night devolved into Maice being very drunk, and her boyfriend coming to pick her up, leaving me there with her ex-friend. He was basically psychotic, and very uncomfortable to be around. But he showed me a new kind of cigarette called Eclipse which was kind of like a vaporizer in joint form. It gave me some good ideas. I later realized that Maice wore my NORML bracelet that she borrowed home. But I saw Amy Paffrath and her little sister toward the end of the night, so it was worth it. Then, I saw Shawn Borich, then Amy Meier and Snively, who convinced me to come and drink from their massive table full of pitchers...but I only had one, because I was starting to feel physically exhausted...

|||111968526545181769|||The Honors Graduation, the Transmission, and Maice