Things have been unusually busy around here lately. It’s not my fault, either. I blame my partner. In the last month, he graduated from college, volunteered to sky dive, and agreed to cook all the food for a Cinco de Mayo/Kentucky Derby party at our house the week before final exams to celebrate his graduation and Toodles’ third birthday.

Okay. Maybe he didn’t know the party would hit the week before finals. Having a Kentucky Derby party any old time takes all the fun out of it. Too soon and nobody knows who won. Too late and everybody bets on the winner. Even my now highly educated partner couldn’t argue with that logic.

Few things spark a wave of home improvements like the decision to host a party. We reviewed the long list of options. That we waited until six weeks before the party dictated our choices. The resulting furniture and carpet purchases forced the complete reshuffle of every room but the kitchen. On the plus side, I could tell when we were moving furniture around that the time I spend lifting weights at the gym is paying off.

This past Friday was graduation for my partner and more than 4,000 University of Georgia classmates. His family came up from Florida for the festivities and stayed with us. We attended the afternoon ceremony for the College of Family and Consumer Sciences together. Tears welled up when I saw my partner in the processional, heard his name called, and watched him accept congratulations from the dean.

I’m so proud of him. For the last four years, he’s taken classes and worked two full-time jobs:  his day job and taking care of me. The day job is 40 hours a week. Taking care of me never ends. I might be just a tad high maintenance. Maybe. Just a little.

Getting a degree on schedule is a tremendous but increasingly rare accomplishment. Life gets in the way. Quite a few one-time freshmen never finish. The fact of dropping out stays with you  Marking “some college” on job applications eases the sting a bit…but not much. Dropping out of college tops the “minus” column–no matter what’s on the “plus” side of the tally sheet.

Going back to school after a multiyear hiatus takes courage. Seeing it through to the end takes grit and determination. But it’s worth it. Replacing college drop-out with college graduate on the tally sheet makes the spirit soar.

After the college graduation ceremony, we decided to grab dinner before the University wide ceremony at seven o’clock. Given that the families of 4000 other graduates had the same idea and that we were all more or less trapped downtown, figuring nobody else would go there, we picked an Indian restaurant which speaks volumes about how little say I had in this decision. Just saying. I’m not a fan of ginger, curry, or really anything that elevates food much beyond bland. I ended up really enjoying the food so it turned out well.

To give my partner time with his family, I decided to forego the four-hour-long university-wide commencement in Stanford Stadium. I’m selfless like that. I may as well have gone because at home, I ended up watching a live broadcast of the ceremony on the cable public access channel.  Frankly, I find the stadium experience to be highly overrated and vastly prefer the comfort of my recliner, 52″ flat-screen, and HD cable. But that’s just me.

Today we didn’t have anything on our calendars. Gym classes are canceled for Mother’s Day. The audio version of Fifty Shades of Gray is on my Nano, but a steady rain prevents me from going for a long run to get a good start on it.

All our home projects are complete. The house is clean. The rain continues to fall. Seems like today was meant to be a lazy day here in…

My Glass House