Graduation

May 18th 2008 marked the day when I finally received my bachelor's degree.

Everybody who knows me knows that I finished undergrad in the latter part of 2007 but unfortunately my ALMA MATER [I can say that now :-)] doesn't have commencement ceremonies in the fall semester. Needless to say I had to wait about 6 months but the point is I made it. I'm finished, I accomplished something that neither of my parents, grandparents, or siblings accomplished so it was kind of a big deal. Everybody is proud of me. Shit, I'm proud of myself. I'll admit, I reached the point of "to hell with this" and wanted to drop out and become a rapper or something. Okay maybe not a rapper, but dropping out was definitely swimming through my head when I realized that there are more people who have succeeded in my field of study without a degree and that is disheartening. Nevertheless, I realized that it was a big deal for me to graduate college because so many before me in my family tree had not done so. I buckled down and kept the mindset that I'm doing this for so many relatives, my momma especially.

The bulk of my family started filing in on the day before from my brother, to my parents (who aren't together), grandparents (who aren't together) and my best friends. Since there was a heavy dose of aren't together-ness going on I had to be the glue to keep everything together for the sake of the occasion and for the sake of my temporary sanity. The sanity was only temporary because eventually I was going ape shit du to so many things not falling into place.

Friday May 16th was a chill day, my brother had been staying with my dad for two days and been trying to get up with me and I hadn't been able to kick it with him due to my schedule. I told him that I'd be getting my hair braided and I would scoop him up around 8pm. Well I didn't get my hair done between 5pm and 6pm like I was scheduled so it pushed me back. By the time I got to my brother it was almost 11pm. We went to TGI Friday's because Dave and Buster's was shut down on a Friday night for a private party. Go figure! We watched the Lakers take the series against the Jazz and had a few drinks. I don't know what it is but every time I go some where and I just want to chill there is always some drunkard who wants to talk and ask me all these questions (never women by the way) and buy rounds. Kind gestures to say the least but don't ask me if I do shots, and then buy some bitch-ass drink. Because that's what this one guy did, my brother was raving about how I was graduating and he flew all the way from Cali to see me and the guy he was telling was like "Okay I'll buy a round of shots for you graduating, that's a big deal." He slid the shots toward us an was like "It's a cherry bomb." BY FAR THEE GAYEST DRINK I had ever drank...totally. My brother and I have the same dad. My dad is 53 yrs old, he is 30 yrs old and he has a 13 year old daughter. Throughout the night he got me up to speed with things regarding my niece and he even told me of how he found out a few years back that he had epilepsy when he was admitted into the hospital for having a seizure. So I was enlightened as to what epilepsy is, how it effect him, and how often he has to take medication...everyday.

As far as the drama it all began on Saturday May 17th when my mother notified me that her mother, my Mom Mom would be arriving in Washington, D.C. by way of Greyhound, GO GREYHOUND! Which was cool and meant that she would be picking her mother up and I wouldn't have to because I had graduation rehearsal as well as some last minute runs to make. My best friend Sheldon also was coming to town (Baltimore) via Greyhound, GO GREYHOUND! Which was cool because he was coming to my city of residence which meant I could pick him up in no time. Everything was looking good for Saturday. My brother had already been kicking it with me and he was hung over, trying to rest up. He was on vacay from Cali so he had every right, I wasn't mad at him. So once I got out of rehearsal and was running around, I get a call from my momma and she's irate to say the least. "Your motherfuckin' grandmother, gonna make me kill her" etc etc etc and I'm like "Whoa! honey bunches of oats, relax! What's wrong?" She proceeded to inform me that my grandmother's bus from Philly made a stop in Wilmington, DE to pick up passengers and she got off the bus because the driver said they had five minutes. She got off temporarily to use the restroom and the bus departed without her. Oh no! Don't, GO GREYHOUND! Well the irony of this is that my mother predicted that something of the sorts would happen, because she knows her mother. So I told my mom I'd call the bus station and see what could be done but before I got a chance my mom called me back and told me that they were going to stick her on another bus that goes to Baltimore, and they would pull her luggage off the first bus in Baltimore. Great idea! Now I get to babysit my Mom Mom, hooray! The only good things about that situation is that she got her luggage and she arrived in Baltimore shortly after my best friend did and I picked them up at once. Gas prices are too high to make multiple trips if they aren't necessary. So the three of us arrived back at my apartment and my brother was asleep on the couch when we walked through the door. Mom Mom walked through first and immediately jumped back and said "who is that man!?!?" because she had never seen my brother but only heard a few stories about him when I was a toddler and that was twenty years ago. 

Everything was copacetic and shortly after, my parents and grandfather arrived at my apartment. By this point it was the second half of the evening my mother and grandmother were tripping because my apartment wasn't up to their cleanliness standard because they both have OCD when it comes to cleaning up, so you know what I told them, "Clean up then." I spent most of the early evening drinking and talking shit among my family and friends. When night officially fell I decided to hit the club scene because there were several parties going on because it was graduation weekend. So my best friend and I went to the Kiss Cafe, neither of us had been so we were both unaware of what to expect. Well immediately I began to sweat because it was extremely hot in the building and I had a sweater over my dress shirt, but I'm cool so I didn't sweat it. The party was kind of lame to say the least. The best part about it was that I got to see a lot of familiar faces and it was much like most of the Morgan State University parties, a reunion of all the former women I used to deal with. The younger JLB would have been uptight because so many of his ex ladies were in the same room, some of which were talking among one another, but hell I'm grown up, nothing will become of any of those so there was nothing to worry about. I got to see some old friends get my drink and two step on and that was my night.

Sunday, May 18th was the day. I woke my hung over brother and Sheldon up at 8am and told them a ride would be there to pick them up at 9am to head to the ceremony which began promptly at 10am. I arrived at the school and the sun was peeking through the clouds and it looked as if it would be a successful event. When they lead us down to the football field I immediately called my mother because I wanted to know if they were present so I could know where to look in case they wanted to record video and take pictures. Mind you, I told them what side of the stadium to sit on because I knew what side we would be on when I left rehearsal. My mom told me that she was not there because my dad gave her the wrong directions, but he and my granddad (her father) were already present. So I walked to my seat and before I got there, I saw all of my old professors and my mentor, and unofficial god parent, Mrs. Stephens, and that was the closest I had ever been to shedding a tear in the last 10 years, but I'm too cool for that lol so I had to get it together. I got to my seat and my dad called me to ask where I was sitting so I came out of the row and was on the sideline of the football field and he was like "I see you son, do you see us, where standing on the top deck." I never saw him and it wasn't me who he thought he saw. Do you want to know why? Because he was on the wrong side of the stadium. I told HIM specifically the day prior what side of the field to sit on so I was getting pissed at an alarming rate because the sun was no longer shining. When my mother and Mom Mom finally arrived, she called me and once I told her she was on the wrong side with that idiot of an ex-husband of hers, she told me not to worry and came running around the other side of the stadium. Gotta love that motherly instinct! My Aunt and Uncle and their two children were the first ones there and they came from out of state, go figure! So my mom came around the correct side with her mother, and my little cousin and they had the camcorders and cameras rolling. Eventually they found seats on that side of the stadium. I got a text at 9:50 saying that my brother and my Sheldon weren't even dressed, and I was like WTF!!!! They are the ones I trusted with the MY CAMCORDER to record ME since I could not record myself. BIG MISTAKE, guess who won't get the cameras if and when I wed. Not them two Negroes. NO way Jose! 

Eventually they got there my mom texted me and told me everybody was in attendance. By the time I got my degree and sat down the rain began to fall, slowly, then steadily, and then of course, rapidly. Bodies started moving towards the stands. I did my best to stay seated and support the other graduates but the rain was coming down hard and I could no longer sit there with no umbrella, ella, ey ey ey! So I got back to the apartment and they went camera crazy taking hella pictures. What do you expect on a day like that? My grandad was the only one who didn't come back to the apartment and my mom told me once they called my name on stage he said he'd be "right back" and that was the last she saw or heard from him. I'm only his first grandchild to graduate college. SMH. So the rest of us went out for dinner and once we got back the rain was coming down so hard I couldn't see in front of me while I was driving Sheldon and Mom Mom back to the bus station. They made their bus on time, but my grandmother decided to step out of line and smoke a cigarette while the bus was boarding, when I found out I sought her out and told her to get her tail back in that line because she was about to get left AGAIN!

My dad pulled me and my brother outside in the rain and told us how his diabetes has gotten so bad it's causing kidney failure and he has a year and a half left on this earth unless he gets a transplant and/or dialysis. The problem is you have to be on dialysis in order to get on the list for a transplant...He doesn't want to be hooked up to a machine 3 times a week...

I heard through the grapevine that once my dad and brother got back to my dad's house he had another seizure and he refused to go to the hospital when the EMT got there.

That, in a nutshell, was my weekend

-JLB