{oh what a night}

On July 5, 1989 I held a baby for the first time. I was almost 11 years old and the baby was 11 hours old. It was the daughter of one my mom's best friends. A baby that had been given my mom's middle name after her, Stacy Marie.

Last night, I watched that baby graduate high school.

When Martha & I were younger, we used to share 'baby' stories of Stacy and a family friend of Martha's who was born around the same time, Seth. Always trying to one up each other. Who walked first, who talked first, who was cuter... As the years went on, Martha's family lost touch with Seth, but I still shared Stacys milestones with Martha. Eventually, it became a 'OMG we're so old' situation. So as I sat in the stadium last night waiting for the ceremony to begin, I texted Martha & told her that if she'd really like to feel old, guess where I am. She calls & says she's on the way to have engagement photos taken, she already feels old. I told her where I was anyways and had to hold the phone away from my ear when she screamed.

Stacy is such an amazing kid. Her mom was telling us how at the awards ceremony earlier last week she was listening to the presenter describe one of the students, going on & on about how the student excels in school, has such a winning attitude, takes part in so many school activities, is such a role model to other students & so active in church. Vicki said she sat there & thought, wow, that students parent must be so proud of their child. They were talking about Stacy. How cool is that?

So yeah, watched her do the walk last night. Went to Chili's afterwards for dinner, our family & hers. Actually, MUCH after... it took us an hour to get out of our parking spot. No clue what was going on, but the garage was so backed up that our floor didn't move, for an hour. Then of course there was the hour wait at the restaurant, since half of the school went there I think. We only passed about 30 restaurants on the beach to get to that one... but it's where Stacy wanted to go, can't deny a grad her wish. Had a nice dinner though. The parents at one table, us 'kids' at another. lol It was odd to carry on such adult conversations with her & her younger sister. Kids I've known for their entire life, now talking about collage & cars & boys.

The whole night made me think of something else too. Watching my mom & Vicki made me fast forward to 2018. When I know I will be sitting with Martha, Kristina & Laura... watching my baby graduate. In the car on the way home Emma goes, "They grow up so fast. The day's just go by so quickly." Apparently someone listened to the speakers at the ceremony.. :) They sure do kiddo...

On a side note, Emma was 11 days old the first time Stacy held her. Love when numbers line up like that.

I know this is getting long... but bear with me.

So we get home a little late after dinner last night, about 11pm. I don't want to get into too much detail as to where I live, so forgive me if this doesn't make total sense. lol So we pull off our exit & notice police at the entrance to where we live. Lots of police. Our first thought, prison escape. Especially once we notice a couple DOC vans sitting there. In hindsight, I wish thats what it was. If that had been the case, they would have checked our cars/trunks & sent us on our merry way to our warm, comfy beds. Instead, we lined up along the side of the road. And waited. The line got pretty long since midnight brought a shift change, so everyone trying to show up for work was told to get in line and wait.

Turns out someone in a white SUV pulled up to the railroad tracks and left 'two large white packages, stacked on top of each other' right in the middle of the tracks. With todays world (factored in with where we live and the security required) the police were called right away. They brought in bomb sniffing dogs, hazmat... the whole deal. A few booms and THREE hours later... we were allowed to go home.

Moral of this story.... we're all a bit tired toady.