And Now it's Real

As you may know, I graduated (with a nice solid B average) from the University of Phoenix last month; I am now a Bachelor of Science in Communication with a concentration in Intercultural Communication.

Commencement is not until May or so, but today it is real to me, because today we had a celebration, planned and hosted by my mom.

Now we have meals and celebrations at Mom's place all the time, for birthdays and other holidays and the like, and I have never been as waited-upon as I was this time. I assume this is because when we are celebrating - say - my birthday, it's not for anything I did... unless you count managing to stay alive until the next year. But this time the celebration was for an actual accomplishment, and I got pampered; usually I'm busy being the Mom and helping my own mom out in the kitchen, filling the kids' plates, juggling juice and milk... the usual Mom things.

So my mom and Lizzy and Abby set up Mom's place after a trip to Party City (which Lizzy says triumphantly to her father really is as good as the commercials say it is), and so there were banners and balloons and a nice celebratory lei. My sister and my niece brought a fruit plate and the cake, my father and stepmother brought a green salad (Dad's specialty), and mom cooked all my favorites: cold poached salmon, asparagus in an Asian-style sauce my family makes, and country potatoes.

Because they love me, and I am an Official Bachelor of Science. The Graduate. That's ME.

I also got a very inspiring card from my niece - she's five - upon which she used several Very Special Favorite Stickers (she loves rockets and aircraft, and from the looks of the card, Aunt Jenn will fly high!), and cards with more pampering possibilities from other people as well, aunts and uncles and friends-of-the-family-who-may-as-well-be-aunts.

Between those gifts and the gift card I got from the Hubs for Christmas, I have a heckuva Spa Day coming. That's what I asked for, when people inquired what I would like for Christmas and graduation - some pampering. Mom did it tonight, and other people are enabling more of it in the days to come.

And since I have several use-them-or-lose-them days off coming here - I earned them the last week of 2014 and they have to be used before the end of March - I'll have plenty of time to do that stuff, although tomorrow is reserved for errands because the kids don't have school. They were crazy-making by the end of the party - Lizzy went to bed late last night and was overtired; Abby is often cranky with her sister by Sunday - so hopefully after a good night's sleep they'll both be civilized human beings again. And then we can get our errands done, and Tuesday I can get them off to school and then have a little Me Time.

And everybody?

Thanks