Dancing? At my age?

Another week has passed in a flash.

Wife and I rose early last Saturday morning, went to spin class at the Y, made a quick trip to the Farmers' Market (local strawberries were in! YEA!), came home and showered and were off to Memphis for Younger Son's rugby tournament.

The game started at 4:30 so we had time to stop in Jackson for a quick lunch. The drive over was actually somewhat relaxing because in the car we can only obsess about all the things we have to do, not actually do them, which makes sense in some warped kind of way. Just humor me.

The game had a sad outcome because even though our team scored more "tries" (like a touchdown in football) than the other one, they beat us on penalty kicks. Younger Son was quite disappointed.

We consoled him for a while, assured him he had done well and we were proud of him, then were off to head toward Auburn for Daughter's graduation.

We spent the night in Tupelo, MS Saturday night, then rolled into Auburn about 1 p.m. Sunday. We picked up Daughter and took her to lunch, then stood in line about two hours -- that's right, two hours -- to take her picture in front of the stately concrete and brick Auburn University sign in front of the campus. And yes it was worth it.

We had a celebration dinner with the family that night, excluding Younger Son who was unable to make it down, and Wife and I left Daughter and Older Son with some of their friends for late night celebrating. We made it back to the hotel about 9, took a nice leisurely walk around the grounds, then turned in fairly early.

I don't know how to describe Monday's commencement ceremonies other than to use one word: miserable. Outside, pushing 90 degrees, hardly a cloud in the sky, 3500-plus graduates. Did I mention it was miserable?

Bright spots were (1) seeing Daughter proudly march across the stage, at which point Wife and I gave each other a handshake and almost simultaneously said, "Two down, one to go," and (2) hearing Robert Gibbs, former White House Press Secretary, give the brief (nine minutes) commencement address. He was a good speaker.

The event began at 9:30. Daughter "walked" at 11:15. She had already sent us a text saying that she would be leaving immediately thereafter, as did roughly 95 percent of the graduates. We heard they finished up around 1 p.m. What word can I use other than MISERABLE?!

But Daughter is now a college graduate and we are immensely proud. Wife and Older Son hit the road shortly before 1 p.m. Daughter and I went to lunch, then went to work packing her up. We loaded up Older Son's pickup truck and the back of my Honda Pilot. I left about 5 p.m. and headed home and Daughter followed a couple of days later. She and her earthly belongings are now back here at the home she left just four years ago. She will now seek a teaching job and see what lies ahead.

Tomorrow morning we'll attend FDIL's hooding ceremony at Belmont University in Nashville, where she will receive her Master's Degree, and we might or might not attend the full blown graduation in the afternoon. Mercifully, it's all inside. It's cooler here than it was earlier in the week, but I appreciate that we won't have fight any kind of weather.

We are now turning our attention toward Younger Son and the graduation party we will have for him next Friday night, then his graduation on the 29th. And then of course there's the little matter of a wedding coming up in five weeks.

Not that this matters in any way, but I am approximately 14 pounds away from the weight I would like to be for the wedding (that would be 14 pounds over, by the way, just in case you were wondering). Unless I decide to shed a body part, I won't make it, but if I can drop a little more over the next few weeks I'll be happy. For about 15 years now I have had this matter of about 40 - 50 pounds that always want to come back after I get rid of them. Here's hoping their exit this time will be permanent.

That is not to say that these recent activities are about me. I just want to be healthy for them.

And in the mist of all of this, Wife has signed us up for dancing lessons. She is scared to death we will make fools of ourselves when we have to dance at the wedding.

Our first one is next Thursday night. When she called to tell me about it, Wife said, "the first lesson will be all about teaching you to lead and me to follow."

OK, folks. She walked right into that one.

What self-respecting husband would not have automatically made some sarcastic comment about having been married X amount of years (in my case, almost 27) and expecting a dance instructor to accomplish that?

Above all, we keep our senses of humor.