Well... looks like I've graduated now.

Yep... today was the graduation ceremony for SVU, and (somewhat surprisingly) I actually managed to get through it without any problems at all.  Even though three of my least-favorite things (getting up early in the morning, extreme heat, and crowdedness) were all involved, none of it really got to me that badly and I was actually feeling pretty good even by the end of it.  Well, I was a bit overheated (which I suppose was unavoidable considering the combination of black graduation robes, black button-up shirt, black long pants, and sun+heat type weather!), but not to the point that it was making me miserable or anything.  I managed to find someone who was okay with sitting with me during the graduation, and (after a bit of work...) managed to convince the school's people to actually let that happen rather than being alphabetical-order Nazis and shoving me into a really uncomfortable position (surrounded by people I either don't know or barely know, in the middle of a row.  ugh.)  And after the graduation, I found out that my mom, dad, and little sister had all managed to make it out to Buena Vista this morning, so I got to see all three of them for a while (and lots of hugs happened, of course.)  After getting pictures of/with a bunch of friends and talking and goofing off for a while and eating some random fruit they had at the reception afterward, Dad took me and Julia to eat some Italian food (I had stuffed shells... and a salad... and cheese sticks... XD) and I think we all ended up pretty much stuffed.

And now, going in backwards order again--before graduation! I actually managed to finish a whopping thirteen of those gift paintings that I was making for people before graduation day happened and everyone disappeared.  And even though I got three paintings done in that last day, my hand only briefly felt funky; it was only the "slightly uncomfortable stretching" feeling when I moved it certain ways and not actual pain, nowhere near as bad as it was toward the end of last semester.  So I should probably be able to paint again after the weekend or so without any risk of things getting worse.  I only have 8 more people remaining on my current list, though I'm sure I'm missing at least a few that probably should be on there.  I won't be just letting those people go without paintings this time, though--I'm planning on getting all of these done and then mailing them out to people over the summer.

Oh, and speaking of paintings, here's a few that I did:

Those were probably my three favorites of the bunch, at least as far as the ones I managed to scan before giving them out.  The last two I finished turned out really well too, but I forgot to even get a picture of them first so unfortunately, I no longer have any record of their existence.  But eh, the people I painted them for have them, which is the whole point of this anyway, so I guess that's not a problem. XD

But yeah... things in general have been going pretty well lately.  Got to say goodbye to a bunch of my friends before they disappeared, got a ton of paintings done, graduated with no problems, got to see my little sister again for the first time in a loooong time... and this Sunday I'm going to actually meet someone from the online dating site, which will be the first time that's ever happened.  Well, I suppose there's a chance that I'll actually end up meeting two of them this weekend depending on whether the one girl who basically asked me on a date actually ends up going through with it or not (apparently "I don't have a car" wasn't a problem for her, but I haven't heard back from her after the last message--it's been days--so "I don't have a car, and I also don't know where any places to go get coffee are around here, maybe in Lexington or something?" might have scared her off. XD)  But anyway, the one I'm really looking forward to meeting is the one who I've actually set a specific day, time, and place to meet already, so it's pretty much a guarantee that it's actually going to happen at this point.  Hopefully that goes well; I know we seem to get along well online, at least, so that should transfer over to real life.  I can't imagine getting along with someone better online than I do "offline," anyway (it's certainly never happened before!), so things should go pretty well.

Should also start looking into the possibility of renting out a storage unit for my couch, table, chairs, mattress, and other random junk I won't need back at home over the summer.  I know there are a couple of places around here like that, but I don't know how much they cost off the top of my head or whether or not they'd have enough room for all of my stuff.  I suppose I'll end up putting things like my TV, whiteboard, and such in there too along with the big stuff, so I don't end up having too much stuff to take home with me.  Of course, I'd probably need to find somebody with a truck who could help out with moving the couch and bed out of here, because otherwise I don't know how I'd get those bigger things to the storage units in the first place!