Dads & Grads

Fuck I'm tired.  What a long day.

I took off work at 1:30 to go down to Derek's brother Ryan's graduation in Orange.  Why was I going to my friend's brother's graduation?  Good question.  It has to do with support, I guess.  No family was there.  We were all to meet at 2:45 at this place called King's Crab House or King's Fish House or something like that on Katella.  Jaime and I rode down together and we were right on time.  No one else was, of course, so we (naturally) went straight for the bar and ordered beers.  Drinking at 3:00 in the afternoon is not normally my thing, but I was attending a high school graduation.  The family showed up after the first beer.  Okay, starting with Ryan at the head of the table: to his left was Derek, then me, then Derek's sister Ashley (very cute; just finished grade 9), Anna, Lisa, Derek's dad Brian, Derek's mom Sue, Jaime, Jaime's nephew Robert (age 6), Jaime's cousin Holly (age 38; overweight and jolly).

Little Robert and I became fast friends of course and I spent most of the evening entertaining the six-year-old.  Derek's dad is very conservative, which, naturally makes me the most talkative person on the planet.  I was in high spirits having already had one beer and another with dinner.  I had an excellent cajun shrimp dish, though it was served with some awful garlic bread.

The graduation started at 6:00p at the Arrowhead Pond.  There were 980 graduates.  Nine Hundred Eighty.  We left around 9:30p.  There were kind of a lot of names to read.  Ryan acted bored most of the time from what I could see in my nosebleed seats, but I was bonding with the six-year-old, so it was okay.

I love kids.  I love them.  I need to have kids one day.  I think I'll wait 'til I have a husband, but I really need to have kids.

I got like 12 phone calls from 1:30 to 9:30.  After the graduation, Jai and I said bye to everyone and headed to Starbucks for the discounted corporate coffee.  Scott and Chris were there.  We stayed there until like 10:45p until I begged for Jaime to take me back to my car so I could come home and crash.

I have tickets to the Mark Taper tomorrow for Stones in His Pockets... not sure what that's about, but I really don't want to drive anywhere anymore.  I am so sick of driving.  I don't want to drive anywhere ever again.  This Long Beach drive is really a burden.  I am having a great time doing the show, but the drive is death.  It's like the opposite of Schindler's list.  Ben Kingsley's voice: "The drive is death."

As one life leaves the world, another one is conceived... Ronald Reagan dies just as the spawn of Marc Anthony and Jennifer Lopez grows in her womb.