How do I spell relief?

I spell it D-I-P-L-O-M-A! I guess I should have taken some basic spelling courses too, huh? :) Yesterday was great! No nerves, just joy and relief. Shawn and I got to the Spartanburg Municipal Auditorium at about 8:20 AM (after a stop at Burger King for breakfast) and got my cap and gown. Shawn tried to be a good photographer (bless his heart), but he was trying to videotape and get still pics at the same time! He got enough that weren't blurry though and I put them up on Dropshots. The one above is actually one of my favorites.

I was able to meet Denise Huff, one of my instructors/advisor. She was pretty sure that I came the farthest to attend the ceremony. Also attending were my classmates Christina, Pheona, Leah and Suzy. It was nice to actually meet each other, even if (with the exception of Leah) we'll never see each other again. Like me, Suzy is a long-time interpreter and she really worked hard on her degree. She graduated with honors and a 4.0 GPA. This is the first of Christina's planned degrees. She'd eventually like to get a BA, then an MA. Crazy girl!! I can't remember what Pheona is doing. Leah has two classes left to finish (they only hold one ceremony per year and she'll finish this summer). She is also a regular pioneer, putting 70 hrs/month in the ministry so she's a busy woman too. When her two classes are done, she'll be looking for a part-time interpreting job.

The graduating class was over 600, and over 400 were in attendance. There were folks in their 60's and kids that were 19; Black, White, Hispanic and Asian; Deaf, blind and differently-abled. It really was neat to see so many people, with so many different backgrounds and obstacles meet their goals.

After the ceremony, I quickly hugged everyone and said goodbye and Shawn and I started up I-85 to Charlotte. We almost coasted back to Enterprise Car Rental (cause there was NO gas left in the tank)! We got the deal where you pay $2.95/gal up front, then you can return the car empty. The cheapest we saw gas on the whole trip was $3.38/gal, so this was a bargain! The lot attendant said, "Wow, you guys 'fumed' this one in!" Once inside the airport, we found a flight for Minneapolis leaving in 20 minutes at 1:15PM. (Otherwise we would have had to wait for our flight at 5:35PM) We made it to the gate in time to hop that flight, hoping we'd have the same option for a flight to Duluth when we got to Minneapolis. Shawn read and I napped on the flight, since we were in the very back seats and there were no windows to look out.

When we touched down in Mpls., we hurried to see if there was a flight home. There was! We got on the stand-by list and the gate agent said we'd be charged $25 each if we got on the flight for the change in our ticket. We had about an hour to kill, so we walked over to Quizno's for a bite to eat. Arriving back at the gate, I noticed this plane was rather small and had propellers. I hate prop planes! But, when everyone got on the plane, the gate agent said there was room for us, so I had to suck it up and be a big girl. Shawn sat near the rear and I was toward the front. Then the saga began. "It seems we're a little tail heavy so it'll just be a few minutes while we balance everything out", came the captain's voice over the tinny little speakers. After sitting there for AN HOUR Shawn and I got kicked off the plane (they asked nicely). For our trouble of course they wouldn't charge is the $25 each and then they gave us each a $50 voucher toward another trip. Can't beat that! Now we have to go somewhere else within a year before they expire. Awww...poor us! :)

We arrived back in Duluth (to 38 degrees), safe and sound on a big A380 Airbus (no propellers) at about 10:10 last night. It was a great first trip for us to SC together, even though it was short. I'm looking forward to the next one already. But before all of that, we've got New York with James, Jonathan and Noah in just 42 days. We can't wait!

~Lynetta