It's graduation season once again. this year, i had five graduations to go to; brother 2, cousin 2, cousin 6, cousin 7, and cousin 8. i missed brother 2's graduation because i had class (and he insisted that girls were very specifically not invited.) I'm going to miss cousin 2's because i have class-why does everyone feel the need to graduate on Mondays?

cousins 6, 7, and 8 are all graduating from elementary school. one was on the same night as brother2 (i had class), one doesn't live in New York, and one graduated on a night that was actually convenient for me, so i attended. to be honest, i don't know the specific age of all my cousins, so i don't know which cousin is number 6, which is 7, and which is 8. (if anyone can clarify this for me, please do so)

so the cousin who's graduation i missed because i had class, attended the same school as myself, sister 1, sister 2, and cousin 4. I've attended enough of them to know that i wasn't really missing anything. they're notoriously long and boring. but my aunt made a cool party afterward. everything, with the exception of the kosher candy, came from Costco.

the cousin who graduated from an out of town school told my mother that her graduation wasn't anything much. in their school, they rent a hall or something for the high school graduation, and the elementary school graduates at the same time. i have no clue why they do this. of course, i could have misunderstood something when my mother was telling me this. I'm pretty good at misunderstanding things. i do that quite often.

the cousin who's graduation i attended was salutatorian. indeed, he did salute everyone; his parents, his fellow graduates, and his teachers. his speech was just the way i like speeches-short, and slightly humorous, but not too humorous. i think my uncle may have had something to do with his speech, but I'm all for parents writing speeches for kids if it means the speech is tolerable. the rest of the ceremony was short, yet boring (quite an accomplishment-i wonder if the institution is proud of themselves) i didn't have the option of ducking out under the pretext of davening mincha or maariv like my dad and uncles did. the other highlight of the evening was when my cousin went up to get his diploma. i think he got the loudest cheers of all the graduates. then again, his family was like 40% of the people sitting in the audience. but the best part of the evening was the after party.

i went to all the graduation parties so far this year-even those celebrating graduations i did not attend. this particular party was a rocking, Thursday-night-cholent-kishka-and-kugel party. with pickles and chips and dip and salads and candies and cookies. it was very cool. not that I'm a big cholent person. i usually only eat it on Shabbos, but i thought this was the best graduation party I've ever been to.

brother2's barbecue party is supposed to be tomorrow, but it's been raining for the past month, so the chances of strong sunshine tomorrow are very dismal. i wonder if we're going to get a refund for this weather. like will the summer extend through September to October?