Graduation

Yesterday (I guess officially the day before yesterday- this is what I get for writing After dancing) was a rather strange combination of excitement and boredom. I went to both parts of graduation- the main commencement and the School of Humanities mini-commencement, which was a rather last minute decision- meaning as of Saturday night when my grandmother decided she wanted to come see both parts (the rest of the family only came for the latter part, since they had to all assemble and then drive up). So I hadn't planned to walk near anyone in particular, which seems to be the major improvement of college graduation ceremonial arrangement above high school graduation. So I walked over, ran into Steve, and ended up hanging by him and several of his friends- it worked quite well, although it was unplanned. (Trying to stay together in a mob when you can't just hold onto the other folks is rather an achievement.) Looking through the graduation program, I found out that I won an award, which I know Nothing about. Any ideas about the Elsie Witt Prize in Jewish Studies? I'm clueless.

THe main ceremony ran about an hour longer than predicted (no surprise there), so that left me long enough to find the family, gulp down a sandwich and go back in for the mini-commencement. There we even had our names on sticky-notes on the chairs. But that ended up mattering for me for a very short period of time- after they went through the graduate students (somehow I thought there were More graduate students than that. I feel like I know so many of them this year- but only a small number seemed to be graduating, even the folks going for their masters. [Masters'? Master's?])- they had everyone who was graduating summa cum laude stand up, and then they had us all come up and sit on stage- I'm not sure why, but that's how it worked. Amusingly, the graduate student speaker was my UWS teacher, who thank goodness is not only generally interesting, but funny as well. It was a touch of interest in what turned into a very long and drawn out process.

Afterwards, there was some misunderstanding about dinner plans, so rather than finding a vegetarian restaurant, as Dad and I had planned to do in order to avoid the anticipated insanity at the kosher restaurants, we just went to one of the restuarants in Waltham. There was some tension, but it dissolved reasonably quickly.

Today we spent some time hanging around in Concord, which is were my folks and one set of grandparents were staying overnight, and then went out to Walden Pond, which I hadn't been to in all my 4 years here- it's not exactly accessible without a car. It was really lovely, and I got some nice time with Mom in the car, and at the Pond. Afterwards, we came back to the apartment, and Mom and my maternal grandmother worked wonders on my kitchen and foyer (while my grandfather fell asleep in what must have been a very uncomfortable position- he was sprawled across my bed in the wrong direction, with his head up against the window). We even found a painting rolled up and hanging around the apartment somewhere, and put it up between the crutches.

The family left, and in the meantime, Steve, a friend who's subletting aschill's room for the summer, had moved her stuff in and was getting unpacked. We spent some time organizing and cleaning out the cabinets and the shelves in the kitchen. One had a whole bunch of honey spilled on it- we cleaned it up most of the way, and it just wasn't coming up totally, so we covered that shelf in a layer of paper towel and then a thing of fabric someone gave me. It looks nice and it isn't sticky, and maybe someday I'll find a way to get the rest of the honey off. Her boyfriend came over later, and we ate dinner before I went out for dancing.

Dancing tonight was quite nice- a surprise since usually a really good night is followed the next week with a very mediocre one. It started out pretty quiet, and then, a bit after 9, tons of people suddenly appeared, including a couple folks who don't come so often anymore- next week is the Memorial day camps, which might explain things. And the program was better than usual, a bit- they put on some things that they usually wouldn't, and they taught Kacha V'Kacha, a dance that I've wanted to learn for a while. I got to spend some time playing with the twins and talking to their mom, and then had a good time hamming up the last set a bit with Steve- sometimes harmless melodrama is just so much Fun. And I learned a bit about how location affects rent prices, and how much better a landlord/lady can be...

Graduation

Yesterday (I guess officially the day before yesterday- this is what I get for writing After dancing) was a rather strange combination of excitement and boredom. I went to both parts of graduation- the main commencement and the School of Humanities mini-commencement, which was a rather last minute decision- meaning as of Saturday night when my grandmother decided she wanted to come see both parts (the rest of the family only came for the latter part, since they had to all assemble and then drive up). So I hadn't planned to walk near anyone in particular, which seems to be the major improvement of college graduation ceremonial arrangement above high school graduation. So I walked over, ran into Steve, and ended up hanging by him and several of his friends- it worked quite well, although it was unplanned. (Trying to stay together in a mob when you can't just hold onto the other folks is rather an achievement.) Looking through the graduation program, I found out that I won an award, which I know Nothing about. Any ideas about the Elsie Witt Prize in Jewish Studies? I'm clueless.

THe main ceremony ran about an hour longer than predicted (no surprise there), so that left me long enough to find the family, gulp down a sandwich and go back in for the mini-commencement. There we even had our names on sticky-notes on the chairs. But that ended up mattering for me for a very short period of time- after they went through the graduate students (somehow I thought there were More graduate students than that. I feel like I know so many of them this year- but only a small number seemed to be graduating, even the folks going for their masters. [Masters'? Master's?])- they had everyone who was graduating summa cum laude stand up, and then they had us all come up and sit on stage- I'm not sure why, but that's how it worked. Amusingly, the graduate student speaker was my UWS teacher, who thank goodness is not only generally interesting, but funny as well. It was a touch of interest in what turned into a very long and drawn out process.

Afterwards, there was some misunderstanding about dinner plans, so rather than finding a vegetarian restaurant, as Dad and I had planned to do in order to avoid the anticipated insanity at the kosher restaurants, we just went to one of the restuarants in Waltham. There was some tension, but it dissolved reasonably quickly.

Today we spent some time hanging around in Concord, which is were my folks and one set of grandparents were staying overnight, and then went out to Walden Pond, which I hadn't been to in all my 4 years here- it's not exactly accessible without a car. It was really lovely, and I got some nice time with Mom in the car, and at the Pond. Afterwards, we came back to the apartment, and Mom and my maternal grandmother worked wonders on my kitchen and foyer (while my grandfather fell asleep in what must have been a very uncomfortable position- he was sprawled across my bed in the wrong direction, with his head up against the window). We even found a painting rolled up and hanging around the apartment somewhere, and put it up between the crutches.

The family left, and in the meantime, Steve, a friend who's subletting aschill's room for the summer, had moved her stuff in and was getting unpacked. We spent some time organizing and cleaning out the cabinets and the shelves in the kitchen. One had a whole bunch of honey spilled on it- we cleaned it up most of the way, and it just wasn't coming up totally, so we covered that shelf in a layer of paper towel and then a thing of fabric someone gave me. It looks nice and it isn't sticky, and maybe someday I'll find a way to get the rest of the honey off. Her boyfriend came over later, and we ate dinner before I went out for dancing.

Dancing tonight was quite nice- a surprise since usually a really good night is followed the next week with a very mediocre one. It started out pretty quiet, and then, a bit after 9, tons of people suddenly appeared, including a couple folks who don't come so often anymore- next week is the Memorial day camps, which might explain things. And the program was better than usual, a bit- they put on some things that they usually wouldn't, and they taught Kacha V'Kacha, a dance that I've wanted to learn for a while. I got to spend some time playing with the twins and talking to their mom, and then had a good time hamming up the last set a bit with Steve- sometimes harmless melodrama is just so much Fun. And I learned a bit about how location affects rent prices, and how much better a landlord/lady can be...