What a Day! (Part 1)

Yesterday was an INSANE day of events, definitely worthy of a post...

I woke up around 7:15 am, which used to be extremely unusual for me (the usual was waking up around 12 noon and going to bed around 4am...not good) but ever since I started substitute teaching, my natural sleep pattern has become more...natural. Anyway, I woke up so early because today, May 12th 2006, was my girlfriend Andrea's GRADUATION DAY!!! The weather forecast had been calling for rain all week, and highs of only the
mid-60's, so I decided to wear black dress pants from the gap, a blue Structure dress shirt (yep, the shirt is from Structure, not Express for Men...it's an old one, but still looks good, and it actually is my good friend Paul's shirt...he doesn't read this, luckily), and a nice black tie; I even brought my heavy, black winter coat because I could just picture myself being cold from rain and wind during a two-hour outdoor ceremony. After dropping off balloons at my girlfriend's house, and picking up some orange roses (they look so very cool), it was off to graduation at The College of New Jersey (TCNJ for the locals)...

So, guess what the weather ended up being like yesterday...rainy, cold, and windy? NOPE! It was SUNNY with very few clouds, HOT somewhere in the 70's, and STAGNANT with no wind blowing! Andrea's graduation was a two-part ceremony: the first part was the college-wide graduation (around 1200 students) that took place on the football field outside on VERY shiny metal bleachers; the second part was for the English graduates (around 100 or so) inside an atrium room. In terms of the outside event, let me just say the following: black pants + metal bleachers + sun = a massive amount of sweating. I was literally soaked underneath my clothes, and I had to start ripping apart my outfit just to survive. The outside ceremony itself was OK; it was kind of crazy, but there was no main guest speaker, just three local politicians (State Congressman Bill Baroni, Head of the Democratic State Committee Bonnie Watson Coleman, and State Congressman Chris Smith, who is a terrible person and EXTREMELY anti-women) who got honorary degrees and said a little something each. Too bad, considering Yankee Coach Joe Torre was giving a speech just down the road at Rider University. The inside ceremony was nice, and there was a lot of good food: cookies, cake, vegetables, crackers, cheese...of course, I was so hot and hungry I would have eaten prunes. Seeing Andrea walk up and receive her diploma was the greatest, I couldn't have been more proud of her! She graduated Magna Cum Laude (only 100 in her entire graduating class), wore honor cords for the English Honor Society and Education Honor Society, and gained the respect of so many professors at TCNJ...

~ CONGRATULATIONS ANDREA ~

After the graduation ceremony, we had no choice but to go with fate and have lunch at Olive Garden. Kind of a back story here: for all graduation ceremonies involving myself or Andrea, we have always gone to Olive Garden...after our high school graduation both of our families went to Olive Garden to celebrate; after my college graduation, the same. It's not even like we are in love with the food there, it's just a part of tradition now that we can't avoid. So, after a nice lunch (I got the chicken parmigiana...a Mr. Cooper favorite), Andrea opened up a present from me; I got her a Targus Slim Line Woman's Laptop Case to carry her brand new, awesome Dell laptop. For our high school graduation, I randomly bought her a Sansui VCR for $19.99 (nope, not Samsung...Sansui, the fakest brand I've ever seen); we constantly laugh about it, especially since the VCR still works after 5 years of use. After lunch, we went back to Andrea's house and decided to take a nice nap for an hour or so (we were both so tired, and both got little sleep the night before). You would think the eventful day would end there, but it was FAR from over!

~ What do YOU think happened next? ~
I'll give you three possible scenarios:

1. We accidentally pushed the 'POLICE' emergency button on Andrea's phone, which resulted in an angry visit from the Hamilton Police.
   
2. We entered and successfully completed a 5K race, in which Andrea finished 1st Place for her age group.
   
3. We drove to Philadelphia to see Gavin DeGraw perform in a private concert that we were invited to, thanks to Andrea's cousin Frank.

Do you know what actually happened next?

If so, leave a comment with your answer.
The prize is an all expense paid vacation to ITALY, courtesy of Mr. Cooper!