Graduation Day

The day finally came:  May 13, 2017 - Daniel's graduation from the University of Tennessee.

And what a great day it was! We drove up to Knoxville on Friday and got to Thompson-Bowling Arena bright and early on Saturday to get good seats. The ceremony lasted a couple of hours, but the speakers were interesting and it was worth it to see Daniel walk across the stage to receive his well-earned degree.

Fun facts:

• The graduates don't sit in alphabetical order. They are given a placard with their name as they want it read and what degree that they are receiving.
• The diplomas are mailed out later, so the graduates received rolled up fake diplomas.
• The College of Arts and Sciences is the largest college at UT and is the longest commencement
• Daniel received a Bachelor of Music degree in Studio Music and Jazz w/emphasis on Drum Set 
• Daniel and one of his friends, John Dooley (pictured below), have known each other since the fifth grade at Meigs Magnet School and went to Hume-Fogg together before ending up at UT.
• Daniel and his roommate, Luther (also pictured below), also a drummer, met the first week of Freshman year and became fast friends.

He's down there in the section in the foreground, somewhere in the middle

Daniel got to sit with some of his friends

Daniel and John Dooley

Grandma and Mom with the graduate

Analese, Anita, Dad and Noah with the graduate

Mom and Dad with the grad:  We all did it!

 After the ceremony, we headed over to Daniel and Luther's apartment and had a delicious catered lunch with both families. Luther's mom ordered some good Southern food from a local restaurant and I provided a cake. It was a fun time to hear stories of Daniel and Luther's years in the dorm and rooming together and Luther showed us some video from his Senior recital.

Laughing about some antics that Luther and Daniel told about from their dorm days

Luther's Senior recital

Luther and Daniel

We didn't notice until later that the cake has some typos!

Showing their true personalities

Should I Stay or Should I Go?

Well, Hi!

It's been a while since I have posted and I'm honestly trying to decide if I'm going to continue with the blog or let it come to an end. I do enjoy writing and am glad that I have this outlet for sharing thoughts and memories. I think I'll try catching up on some major events that have happened over the past six or seven months and then see how it goes from there.

Before I go on, my salutation at the top reminded me of one of my favorite stories from Daniel's childhood. He was about two or three years old and Halloween was coming, so I thought I should teach him how to trick-or-treat. One day I told him that in a few days he would get to wear a costume and we'd go to our friends' houses to get candy (of course, this sounded like a great idea to him).

I had him go in his room and close the door and told him that I would knock and he should open the door. When he opened the door, I said, "Trick or Treat!" very enthusiastically and offered him a pretend bag for him to put pretend candy inside. We did it that way a couple of times and then I told him that I'd stay in his room and he could go in the hall and knock on the door. When he knocked on the door, I opened it and smiled at him, waiting for him to speak first. After a couple of seconds, I said, "What do you say?" Daniel smiled real big and said very confidently, "Well, hi!"

I burst out laughing and reminded him to say "Trick or Treat!" in order to get candy on Halloween. We've gotten a lot of laughs out of that memory for the past twenty or so years!

So, stay tuned for some new posts coming soon!