Graduation

So, I semi-officially graduated today, I suppose. We had a joint graduation celebration with some of our friends down in Portland today. I say semi-officially only because my schoolwork has not yet been sent to California for Kolbe Academy to okay, and because of that, I haven't received my official diploma.

As it was, the official party for the semi-official graduation was heaps of fun, involving lots of good food and contra dancing.

My family was largely in charge of the food. Mama and Mary made five enormous lasagnas, plus a titanic bowl of salad. If I'm not mistaken, the house still smells distinctly of the former. (It's very possible with my allergies that I am mistaken, and it's all in my head.) I actually still haven't tasted the lasagna, since my lunch for some reason ended up consisting of Greek olives and carrots. But I don't think I'll be able to escape doing so eventually (the lasagna is tasty, don't get me wrong; the narrator simply isn't a huge fan of tomato sauce): even though we practically threw the stuff at people as they were leaving, we still have tons leftover (we'd made enough for over a hundred people, just to be safe, and not that many came).

Contra dancing is fun. Very fun. It rather reminds me of the Jane Austen era dances, with a few differences.

1. The music can be similar in style, but is definitely livelier. It's usually Irish or French Canadian fiddle music, so some of the roots are similar, but other than that, the main resemblence is in their mutual dissimilarity to current popular dance music.

2. It's much less organized. In Jane Austen's times, people knew the dances, for the most part. Now they don't.

3. It's very informal: people don't care if you dance with your 4-year-old brother; just having fun is what matters. (With some restrictions, of course.......... You don't want to appear a complete idiot.)