Brenna's Graduation and Engagement Prep

May 18 - 24

Sketchy's, Infiniti fx35, while luxurious and pretty, was on a gas eating rampage. It was getting up there in miles. Not shocking considering he had been using it for at least a year to drive from Crystal City to Frederick, MD (100 miles daily). Yes. Sketchy drives 100 miles a day for work, so stop complaining about your commute. 

I had started driving the car about a year ago to alleviate Sketchy's gas burden even though my car is also a v6 gas burner -- at least we could put something less than premium in it. 

At any rate, I don't like the Infiniti, it is such a man car even if it looks girly. The engine is ooc and the steering wheel gives you a workout. I've been bugging him about trading in for a cheaper, more fuel efficient, and a tiny bit bigger SUV for over a year now. We said once we got the house, we'd really start looking. As promised, we started test driving things in February of this year. 

So we looked at a few cars online, and then honed in on a few we liked. We really liked the ford explorer but the starting model was too expensive for what it was. Sketchy really wanted a four-door wrangler which we test drove and I actually started considering (but thank god we didn't end up with that). We then looked at the GMC acadia which was nice and big but again was expensive. Then we thought about the terrain for a while. Test drove the terrain a few times actually and was pretty close to pulling the trigger last month. 

Sketchy had been very picky with what brand he would go with. I had constantly seen this suv on the road that I always pointed out asking, "hey what's that one??" and it was always the same. The equinox. But it was Chevy which sketchy wanted no part of. 

Finally when going back to get the terrain we took a look at the equinox. Same inside, a little bigger and a little cheaper which meant we could get more features for less price! We test drove and loved it. We checked a couple dealerships over the months and test drove a couple times. Then we walked into Ourisman and there on the show floor was the most glorious equinox we had seen. Chrome package look with pretty wheels and everything we wanted. so we went for it.

cheaper -- check

more fuel efficient -- check (put 10.00 in infiniti got maybe 46 miles. put 10.00 in equinox and got about 100 miles)

larger -- check! three can fit more comfortably in the backseat and the trunk actually holds things! will be perfect for the dogs on their rides down to fburg. 

Saturday May 18, 2013, We had a new member of the family: 

Sunday Brenna graduated on the Georgetown Campus. Both ceremonies were nice. The first ceremony was on a lawn in front of a very impressive georgetown typical enormous stone building. The second ceremony was in a ballroom and was just the presentation of the diplomas so they were smaller ceremonies organized by section. Everything flowed well and seemed to be perfect! 

view of stage with large Georgetown building in background

better view of stage

procession. Brenna is in this picture. 

zoomed in, maybe you can find her more easily. She's looking right in my direction.

The section ceremony procession was super fast. people just started walking in out of no where!

got just one picture. 

The whole after ceremony situation was ridiculously crowded in the hallways. People were rushing off to return gowns, while some parents and students were trying to have conversation, and others trying to get to the very pretty and delicious looking h'orderves. Couldn't get many pictures with it being a madhouse. 

Did get a picture of these G cookies -- so cute!

Brenna and her G cookie.

me and Brenna

Brenna and her Padres and... THE DIPLOMA!

Pretty picture of Brenna and her mom.

Afterwards we went to Carmines for a Family Style Italian Dinner. First time in the restaurant. It was REALLY good! The chicken parm is really great. Definitely will be going there again.

Monday I saw a free screening of Fast and Furious 6 with Sketchy and Brenna. I, for one, pretty much loved it. This is all ridiculous because before I met sketchy I would never in a million years have watched any of the series. When 5 was coming out in theaters, Sketchy made me watch 1, 2, 3 and 4 on dvd so that we could go watch 5 when it came out. I hated 1 and 2. Absolutely lacked words and plot. Three made NO SENSE in life. Four was good, finally a plot! I liked 5 and then after five realized why i now liked three. It was interesting to me how well the directors/creators of F&F were able to work backwards and tell a story of the lives of the people in part 3. all in all 6 was good and i've actually seen it again in theaters since. lol

Tuesday Rabia and Rovi got into town in the evening. We went out to Vapianos for dinner and then took a scenic tour through dc on the way back home to call it an early night. They seemed to have lived Vapianos since they planned to go back the next day for lunch! lol

On Wednesday I went down to Fburg to pick up Sapna. She took off Wednesday - Sunday for engagement festivities. We went to a few stores to look for table clothes, fabric and various other materials for decorating the hall. 

Thursday very early in the morning Natasha got into town. Natasha, Sapna and I headed straight into errands to buy everything needed for saturday. Natasha and Sapna were helpful in helping choose colors and such. We were trying to do so much in so little time. I was getting extremely stressed out. Mid-day we dropped natasha off to nap and relax at home while Sapna and I hit the stores again. By the afternoon Kate and Jim had arrived. I was making dinner for some of sketchy's cousins that evening and still needed to hit one more store and the grocery store so would see Kate and Jim when they got back from dinner which they had planned to do with Natasha and other DC friends -- Vapianos. 

Thursday evening was the first time that week i relaxed a bit while i cooked -- three lasagnas. Two meat and one little cheese for sapna. Made the cheese lasagna in a cute little corningware baking dish i got in a set from Lindsay! cooking relaxes me, and it's not something i had been able to do before the engagement or much since. very upsetting. anyways dinner was good. 

Kate and Jim got back when we were finishing dinner. gave them the tour, met Jim (in all my greasy glory -- not sure when the last I had showered from Tuesday -- guess that was only a day). I don't think i got a proper picture of the two of them but they were very cute in person! 

Friday more family got into town. lots of aunts. friends and bridesmaids were over for mehendi night. We were getting short on time but i believe in the end everyone who wanted mehendi got it done. The aunts were fed and happy with lots of veggie chinese food and hopefully the white folks were kept entertained and happy with pizza and company downstairs. 

I feel like people had taken pictures of the mehendi on their phones, but not sure who or where they are. Suppose they'll turn up in a year.