baby brother grows up

summer 1990, lake louise, alberta, canada

my baby brother is graduating from college this spring. i think with some sort of honors, too. as a neurology major. yep, i'm pretty impressed and proud.

after much searching over the past few weeks, the bear the i finally found plane tickets for under $400 a pop. and well under that. whew. and then the hotels. they like to rip you off as he attends a school in a small "city." the hotels know that everyone and their moms and their moms will be in town, and therefore they can get away with murder in terms of rates. not to mention it's over a long holiday weekend. oh, and we need a car. plus it means i will miss my dear friend's wedding in manhattan, a few hundred miles away late the night before, at a hotel that charges a minimum rate of $800 a night. you can imagine what that wedding will be like. PLUS she kept it very small, so i am holding in my little hand quite the hot ticket, which would have allowed me to be there for her on her day and also have a reunion of sorts (her voiced wish). wah wah wah, i know.

so why didn't we just skip it?

1. my mom made my brother miss his senior prom in order to attend my college graduation across the country. he missed prom and flew thousands of miles so he could watch me in a 1.5 hour processional in which they never really could figure which of the 35,000 or so black-gowned ants i was, then sit through everyone in my college (a few thousand) walk and be announced individually, and then suffer through my intimate departmental reception. all this after i told mom that i didn't want him to miss his prom and that i truly really would not be hurt if he weren't there. when i asked him if he really wanted the bear and me to go, he said, "well, it's up to you, but i did miss my prom for your graduation. just sayin'. " boys can talk like girls better than we can.

2. graduations are probably as important as or even more important than weddings and funerals on my mom's side of the family. no joke. much of my extended family flew in from korea to witness my 8th grade graduation. jr. high, people! not even high school!!! you see, education is supremely important to the maternal-side potatoes. in this family, stopping schooling with less than a master's degree is greatly frowned upon. my mom's generation, including all of her siblings and most of her cousins, have at least one doctorate and did post-doctoral work. the reason goes back to my feudal lord great grandfather kicking my grandfather out of the house when he was 11 years old to find his way in the world (that's a whole 'nother story). only through hard work and sacrificing everything and anything in order to make sure he got himself an education did grandpa potato succeed. or so he thought (obviously other factors played into his success) and proceeded to impress upon generations to come.

z. there's a ruby tuesday near the hotel we booked. those dang commercials on cable featuring food porn tantalize us. we know it probably won't be any better than red robin and maybe marginally better than t.g.i. friday's or chili's. however, the bear gets so crazed when he's teased by the commercials and then can't try it. we are excited to put his crazed frustrations to rest. finally.

4. the bear and i really do want to be there to witness his big accomplishment. because we love him.