The Big Day is Tomorrow!

Today was very laid back - our first stop again was our friendly neighborhood Waffle House for breakfast. After that, we decided to head over to the Spartanburg Community College Campus to take some pictures. My favorite one is this one! :) We then meandered over to the Student Center and Book Inn to buy some school memorbillia. I'm from Wisconsin - I can ALWAYS use another sweatshirt! I was able to meet Ms. Foster (in the south, everyone is Mr. or Ms.), the director of the Book Inn. We had talked on the phone and via email numerous times regarding my textbook orders so it was nice to put a face with the name. She was so sweet too - she graduates from a different school with her B.A. degree in two weeks and she thinks it's a 'fine thing to just be still' for awhile after all our hard work! I have to agree with her.

After our stop there we headed over to Krispy Kreme to grab me a coffee and Shawn a Coke and then off to the Spartanburg Auditorium for rehearsal. Pretty standard stuff there. The Alumni Association gave us a nice frame for either our diploma or our graduation picture. I found out that there are over 600 graduating tomorrow, but around 400 will actually attend. I have to be at the Auditorium tomorrow morning at 8:30 to get my cap and gown. The show starts at 10:00 a.m. and Health Sciences and Human Services will be the first to get their diplomas so we'll get the walk over and done with first. I got my final grades today and overall for my 2 years of school I'm walking away with a 'B' average. Not bad I guess for all that's gone on.

Next we didn't know what to do - we had lots of time to kill before we were meeting my classmate and fellow sister Leah and her husband Greg for dinner. We drove down the road a bit to the South Carolina School for the Deaf and Blind to take some pictures of the southern architecture and grounds. It was gorgeous! We had to go through security, get visitor's badges and promise not to take any pictures of students, but it was worth it. We had a long walk (the grounds were huge) and once again I was so happy to be taking some pictures for fun again! Take a look over on Dropshots.

I'd be remiss if I didn't talk about the weather while we've been here. It's been beyond wonderful! Upper 70's to mid 80's everyday. Today we had a few clouds, but nothing we couldn't handle. We'd forgotten the concept of air conditioning until we got here.

Back to our day - we then drove around looking for a place to eat and decided on the Cracker Barrel Country Store & Restaurant right next to our hotel. We had wonderful chef's salads that were just the right size for us (I ate 2/3 of mine and Shawn ate the other 1/3 + his of course!)

Thinking about the fact that this was OUR time alone and we could do ANYTHING we wanted, we opted to go back to the hotel for a nap! It's really been a whirlwind trip through the state the past few days and we just wanted to relax a bit. So we did.

Leah called then she and Greg picked us up at about 6:30 and we headed to a great little Greek/Italian place called Capri's. Lasagna, Shrimp Alfredo and Pizza were the orders for the night and we had a great time talking about interpreting, field service experiences and just life in general. It's such an amazing thing we as Witnesses have - to be able to meet someone for the first time (face to face) and share so much in common. Really an unbelievable bond!

Back at the Radisson now getting ready for bed and for the big day tomorrow. Still trying to figure out what I'm going to do with this big mop of hair and that little graduation cap. It'll be a surprise tomorrow I guess! As I look back on the past two + years, I'm not only proud of my accomplishment, but I'm proud of the people around me who have worked so hard to help and support me - Shawn, my mom, James, Jonathan, Noah, Jim, Theresa, Cecelia and Leandra. A huge THANK YOU and hugs to all of you.

~Lynetta