Pomp and Circumstance

When Bryan was born, he had a mom and an older brother, Jeremy. Jeremy had a dad, but not the same dad as Bryan... and neither of the dads were interested in being fathers. They had only been interested in Bryan's mom for a week or two, and had moved on. Bryan's mom did what she could to provide for her two boys, but since she had no skills, no education and a substance abuse problem, when she got caught "doing what she could", she would have to spend time away from the boys. Jeremy and Bryan were in an out of foster care, and that's how I met Bryan. My mother-in-law fostered the boys. They would sometimes go to meet their mom for visitation, and sometimes she would show up, but sometimes she would forget. Sometimes they would go live with their mom for a month or two, but they always ended up back at Laurie's.

Bryan and Jeremy stayed with Laurie until Jeremy developed behavior issues that she was not equipped to deal with. She asked his caseworker to find a new permanent placement for Jeremy, and she decided to adopt Bryan.
Since they moved to Monmouth 4 years ago, Spencer and I really have bonded with Bryan. Bryan is a runner, and we watched as many of his races and track meets as we could. We took a really fun trip to the Redwoods. He goes camping with us, and he comes over every once in a while, when he isn't working at Burgerville. I feel like he and I have a real bond. I don't know if I have maternal feelings for him, or if I feel like big sister, or an aunt or what. I just know I'm awfully proud of him.

For a kid who had a lot of strikes against him, he turned out amazing. He's smart, he's unfailingly polite, he's agreeable and really nice. He has been accepted to Western Oregon University, where he is going to study computers. Tonight was Bryan's high school graduation.


The last high school graduation ceremony I went to was my own, and all the ones before that were at my small high school. So I'm no expert on graduations, but I did have some expectations going into tonight. I should have lowered them. A lot.

For instance, I had expected folks to put some effort into their attire. I wore a dress, Madison wore a dress, Laurie wore a dress.
Many other folks wore cut offs, tank tops, I am not lying I saw a bikini top... and she had something written (Perez '09) on her chest. This is not that girl. This is (I presume) Emmy Jo.



I thought that by now, we would not need to be reminded to silence our phones at gatherings...so when no reminder was forthcoming, I was okay. The folks around me, however, had not remembered to silence their phones...and you KNOW they had crazy ass ringtones.
So, after your phone rings it's crazy ringtone in a gym full of people, you turn it to vibrate or off, right? Not these people. They continued to take calls. I am not exaggerating, the guy behind me took three calls, and he wasn't even whispery about it.
When people weren't yakking on their phones, they were loudly talking to each other.

And it was hot in the gym. After the first two hours, it really started to smell bad. Then I remembered that this is the school that was shut for 11 days because 16 kids got swine flu. 45 people in the town got swine flu, er, H1n1. And as I smelled them all tonight, I began to suspect that these are not the greatest hand-washers.

So there I sat, hot, miserable, and a teeny bit holier than them.