And so once again the wheel comes around. After my very successful (albeit last-minute) Christmas surprise for my mother, I was feeling pretty good about the fact that I couldn’t try that again for a long time. Then on a cool day in February, my sister-in-law messaged me asking if we could arrange a repeat performance for my brother’s graduation… in June.

Yeah.

And now, the full story…

I was reluctant to take this on at first given my predilection for not repeating myself. But I agreed because as was stated on Facebook the other day, my brother’s wife has Elite Awesome Status and +50 to Ball-kicking. Plus she reminded me that I owed her for missing last Thanksgiving. So we made our plans.

As always, the maximum number of people that can keep a secret is one. This was kind of on me, though… my mother had cornered me early on to offer airfare to Albuquerque, so I had to tell her. And things sort of snowballed from there as I had to get more elaborate to keep my brother in the dark. My cover story was that I landed the lead in an indie film that would start shooting that week.

Things went really well right up until the day I got there. My brother’s surpise would have been total if his wife hadn’t insisted he come home early. But it still turned out well enough so I’m only too glad to retire that gag.

The graduation ceremony was good. It was a small class (mainly because the main graduation for the University of Phoenix takes place in Phoenix — go figure) but enthusaistic family and friends filled the auditorium. The most interesting moment was that they added an invocation of the Lord’s Prayer, performed by a pair of Native Americans in full ceremonial dress — one chanting, one signing. Very odd… very New Mexico.

The rest of the week went swimmingly for a vacation. I spent a lot of time with my nephews, played way too much Lego Star Wars and even enjoyed some quiet time where I could grab it. After the month I had, I needed a respite from the world for a while.