Blue Cheese in the Bathroom (or, Cous Cous Graduates!)

My cousin Naomi is now the latest member of the Gibbs clan to earn a college degree. She graduated this past weekend from Whitman in Walla Walla, and my parents and I drove down for the ceremony and a mini family reunion with Naomi and her parents. Way too much happened for me to regurgitate everything, so here's an abbreviated version:

 1. Wine tasting at Dusted Valley Winery. We must have sampled eight wines and posed for close to 8,000 photos with Graduation Bama, who dug his old graduation gown and cap out of his closet for the festive occasion. (I realize I managed to pick the one picture from this outing that does not feature a wine glass.)

2. Thai dinner. Here we are singing one of the songs, probably "Sisters," from White Christmas. We also paid homage to the classic movie with renditions of "Snow" (complete with sound effects), "Gee, I Wish I Was Back in the Army," and "What Can You Do with a General?" That was also the evening of the Great Water Mishap--allow me to explain: our waitress supplied our table with a single carafe of ice water. There were six of us, so we finished the water fairly quickly. We asked for two more carafes, at which point we were told that they didn't have any more. Toward the end of the meal--I'm talking right as we were paying the check--the waitress appeared with the extra carafe that they supposedly did not have. (Our existing one was half full at that point, so we weren't exactly parched.) Not only did she leave the second carafe, but she came around with another pitcher and filled all our empty glasses...and then left the pitcher.

3. I don't have any photographic evidence of this next one, but it's the namesake of this post so it must be included. Before dinner at the Thai restaurant, we had hors d'oeuvres in our hotel room. The previous weekend I had gone to the Cheese Festival at Pike Place Market with my friends and had been given strict orders by my mother to purchase a "nice" blue cheese to take to Walla Walla. I am not what you might call a connoisseur of blue cheese (in fact, I hate it), so I had my friends try various samples and help me choose. Fast forward to the hotel room. My mom opened the plastic wrapper encasing the wedge of vile cheese, and immediately the room was ripe with its odor. I find the smell nauseating, so I insisted that the cheese be located not on the desk with the rest of the spread, but in the bathroom with the door mostly closed. When my mom was explaining the food (because apparently a plate of wasabi peas and a bowl of rice crackers require an explanation), she announced that there was "brie and mozzarella on the desk and blue cheese in the bathroom." My extended family, bless their hearts, didn't even bat an eye.

4. Naomi (Cousin Gibbs, Cous Cous) graduates! While we were waiting for the ceremony to begin, we were serenaded by the musical stylings of the Walla Walla Orchestra, who cycled through all the requisite songs for such an occasion: "Sweet Caroline," "Hallelujah," "Build Me Up Buttercup," and everyone's favorite quintessential graduation ditty, "Poker Face."(Seriously. I have video.) Aside from the remarkably bizarre commencement speaker who dedicated her speech to female gangs and the prevalence of women in prison, it was a lovely ceremony. 
 
5. Dinner at T. Maccarone's, where Naomi and I went for brunch when I visited her in February. Because it was a Gibbs/Margoshes outing, chaos was bound to ensue. First, my aunt asked for a glass of prosecco. They were out. Then she ordered carpaccio (I forget what kind). They were out. Then my uncle ordered a spring salad because it advertised having a soft boiled egg. When the salad came, there was no egg. He asked the waiter who said--you guessed it--that they were out. When we'd finished the meal, the waiter brought the dessert menu. "You can have anything you'd like," he said, "but I'm told we're out of..." and proceeded to list each one of the six desserts. "Just kidding!" he said, and left us to our decision. 

I'm trusting that my dear cousin will inform me if I've neglected anything of note. 

CONGRATULATIONS, NAOMI! I LOVE YOU!