Graduatrix

I know this post is way overdue. I've been waiting for inspiration to strike for the big graduation post, and it just hasn't come in the narrative way I was hoping. But I will tell the story as well as I can.

Well, folks, I'm a college graduate! My parents flew in for the weekend of festivities, and my brother and his wife brought the kids down too. Jenny came because she thought she owed me (thanks Jenny!) and of course Joe. Frankly, I didn't invite many people, because who wants to sit through a graduation ceremony? Oh, and did I mention my school has *two* ceremonies? One for each school (although mine-Columbian College of Arts and Sciences-was divided into two) so each student can walk, and then one for all George Washington University graduates on the mall in front of the capitol. I wanted to walk, but I didn't want to miss graduating on the mall either, so I went to both. My parents and Joe went to both too, bless their hearts.

My robe came in a package that said "Do not wear this garment in the rain, do not wash, do not attempt to dry clean." Ew. I wonder what it's made of. It sure was ugly and hot.

The first day was indoors, and it went like this "good luck graduates, blah blah blah" and then we lined up to walk with our departments. First, they give you a card to write your name on so you can sit where ever you want, which is nice. Then, as you get to the front of the line, and the shove you in front of this camera for your portrait, then they shove you out again where you hand your card to someone and she hands it to the guy with the mic and he says your name and you go across the stage to shake hands with the chair of your department (mine gave me a quizzical look because we'd never met) and you get a big bronze medal. And that's that. Frankly, it was all a little anti-climactic, but it was still a special day.



Sunday the ceremony was at 10, but we had to be there super early to line up. I got to sit with my friend Ed who walked in the earlier ceremony on Saturday. We tried to get a pic of the capitol behind us, but the sun was really bright and it just disappeared. I'll try to photoshop it darker to see if it shows up. So then we all walked in and I literally couldn't see *anything* of the ceremony. Not even the monitors. It was long and we didn't have a keynote speaker (long story short, Trachtenberg-the outgoing president-was going to speak, people complained, he stepped down and there was no one to replace him) but Wolf Blitzer and Linda Cropp and some others that I don't know received some honorary degrees and spoke typical grad speeches and it all took a really long time. The guy in front of me was reading the newspaper. When the hat throwing time came, I'd estimate about 60 people out of 4000 threw their hats (guilty, I kept mine). This town just has no whimsy. Again, a little anti-climactic, but the pics look good, right? And we had a really fun party after!