Sydney Pie and Kylie K: Uncle Dan Graduates

Dan graduated last weekend. It's been awhile but here is the post. It was Sydney's first time on an airplane. There and back we had 4 takeoffs, and Sydney slept through each and every one of them. She was a better traveler than both Cherilyn and myself. I was feeling lightheaded on our last leg and Cherilyn wasn't feeling well either. But Sydney just slept through the whole flight and was happy as a clam when we landed.
We had a lot of fun in Nashville seeing Dan. Unfortunately Nashville drivers apparently never go to driver's ed, and instead are thrown behind the wheel as infants and expected to drive. They don't look when they turn out into oncoming traffic, just assuming it's a 50/50 chance. Either there is a car there or there's not. Also turn signals must be outlawed because no one uses them. I was turning left and yielding to oncoming traffic when the oncoming car just stopped. Apparently he was turning left as well but didn't signal and looked annoyed for me being in his line of sight. The interstate was 5 lanes wide, but traffic never seemed busy enough to merit the extra lanes. I figured out the extra room is for people swerving to avoid other drivers. The best driving moment was when I was passing a Farmer's Insurance car and they started to drift into my lane. I quickly slowed down to avoid them and they entered my lane as if nothing happened. I repeat an insurance car almost hit me while changing lanes without a signal. Awesome.
Moving on from the spectacular traffic. Dan graduated on Friday from Vanderbilt. The ceremony was outside under a tent. It was pretty rainy weather all weekend, but for most of the ceremony it was clear. The keynote speaker at the graduation compared the law students to newly emerged cicadas. Awakening from years underground, which was the library. His comparison went awry at the stage of the life cycle when the cicadas go into a mating frenzy. It was a very good speech. After the ceremony we went over to the law building for champagne and strawberries. Unfortunately there were only stairs at the entrance. We had Sydney in the stroller and we didn't want to wake her up so I carried her down the stairs in the stroller. We made it all the way down but at the bottom it must have been slippery because my foot went out from under me. I tried setting down the stroller as I fell, but it started to tip. Sydney slid off the back of the stroller. As I was on the ground I saw her sliding down and I caught her right as she was falling out. It was a very close call. My hands were shaking for about an hour from the adrenaline. Luckily Sydney was fine and I didn't get hurt either. We all enjoyed some champagne and then headed back for a nap.