Three Grandsons, Three High School Graduates

Mitchell Graduates

It's 7:00 and for a change, I am the only one up.  We had Mitchell's graduation last night and afterwards, the four of us went out to a cool bar and did not get home till 11:30.  It's overcast again, the Dallas  high will get in the 90's later in the day, just a bit warmer than Chautauqua by the way which is having a warm spell.  The garage door just opened and Mitch walked in from an all night school party at the Dallas Country Club.  I assume he's ready for bed, at least it looked like it.

Yesterday was a get ready for graduation day, and pick up Marisa from school at noon day as it was her last day.  She had her math final and because of the Internet, the teachers all use a digital grade books, so she was able to see she received a 98% on her test within an hour.  So it was an exciting day for both of them.  We had a mostly open morning, just some ironing of clothes for Mitch, making sure we had clean and ironed clothes for rest of  us.

St. Arnold:  Patron Saint of Breweries

I decided to do some exploring, drove to the local strip malls, and picked up a present for Evie from Trader Joe's, a six pack of St Arnold's Lawnmower beer. We had our first taste of it at Hopdoddy's the night before and she loved the name as well as the beer.  I also did some browsing but ended up at the infamous Drip Coffee, where the Housewives of Dallas supposedly did some filming.  As far as I could tell, they were not there so I read my Dallas paper and had a cup of coffee.

Mitchell Relaxing

Marisa At Ease On Her Trampoline

After Marisa came home, we took her out to the California Pizza Kitchen, a five minute drive away. It was filled with kids, families, like us, celebrating the end of school.  All four of us got the pizza and salad or soup special.  It was good pizza I have to admit and Marisa loved her Hawaiian pizza with barbecue sauce and pineapple.  After wards, we did some shoe shopping at DSW but not one of my gals could find a pair they liked.  We were home by 2:00 and did not do much the rest of the afternoon except take Cody for a walk.

Off To Graduation

Around 5:00, Mitch was dressed and ready for his graduation.  We took a picture of the three of us around 5:30 then he was off with friends as they had to be at Southern Methodist University's Moody Coliseum  by 6:00.  Rami dropped Marisa off at a girlfriend's home and picked us up at 6:15 for the drive to the SMU campus.  The campus was crowded with car traffic, parents of the grads but we found a spot in an outdoor lot about five minutes from the coliseum.

Moody Coliseum

When we walked in, we were shocked to see most of the 7000 seats were taken, so we ended up on the top tier of seats, at the opposite end of the stage, with lots of legroom so I was happy.  The seats were as good as any I suppose because they had a huge Jumbletron TV screen hanging from the ceiling so everyone could see the stage and the individuals as they graduated.

The Five Hundred

Mitchell Crossing The Stage

The graduation lasted about three hours, with 500 kids walking across the stage as their name was called.  Three students spoke, as well as three administrators.  The kids, the top two in the class, were better than the adults.  As I sat up watching, I looked around and almost everyone was on a iPhone on and off during the ceremony once their child had walked across stage.  What did we do before iPhones?  Snooze, go home, pay attention. The best part of the process was the beginning, a flute solo by a senior, and the finale, a song by three of the senior girls, with a guitar.  When it was over, we had a difficult time finding Mitch among the 7000 parents and 500 kids but finally located him long enough to take pictures before he took off with buddies to the party.

Hitting The Local Bar Scene

We decided to celebrate Mitch's graduation and did not have to worry about Marisa because she was at a friends, so we hit one of the oldest and still most popular bars in the Dallas neighborhood of Knox Henderson, The Old Monk.  It was hopping when we got there, lots of people sitting outside at tables because it was a warm night and just as we walked in, a table opened up so we were able to get seats, perfect timing.  Our waitress was quick and efficient and we had beers and more amazing fries and a pretzel within 10-15 minutes.  Evie loved both the pretzel and fries which came with three mayos, one with tarragon, one spicy, and one with bourbon.  We liked them all.  The place just kept getting more and more crowded with mostly younger people and it was so loud we could hardly hear each other speak.  It was fun, the beers and food were great, but we were happy to be on our way after an hour.

Happy At Old Monk's

We were home around 11:30, watched some of the Cavs game and had a piece of cheesecake for our dessert.  I then took Cody for his night walk before going up to bed, the end of another busy but fun day in Dallas.