Eoraptor
Well-known member
Hi girls! Sorry for the recent absence, I've been busy with a few things including graduating from college! I had the ceremony and my family's party for it yesterday. Unfortunately, my parents don't want my extended family to know about my girliness, so I couldn't doll myself up or wear my heels. But it woldn't have lasted in the rain for hours and my feet would have been dead standing for so long in heels, so maybe it was for the best this one time.
Yesterday was a mix of tedium and happiness, where the latter replaced the former the instant I left for my parents' in Maple Valley after the ceremony. My parents arrived at my apartment at 11, and we all walked to the stadium a bit before noon. It was raining lightly (as opposed to Friday when it was hot and sunny and today when it's partly sunny), but my gown was initially soaking up the water without transferring it to the clothes beneath. We separated and I tried to find the line-up area. There were big signs with arrows pointing one way for the College of Arts and Sciences (which I'm in) and another way for All Other Colleges and Degree Programs, so I went toward the former, stood in line for a short time, then realized there was nowhere for Bachelors' of Science to stand! I had missed the fine print beneath the signs. Turns out they said "College of Arts and Sciences - Bachelors of Arts only" and "All other Colleges and Degree Programs - also Bachelors of Science in the College of Arts and Sciences". *grumble* So I walked around the stadium and found the head of the line for the section I needed, then walked a good few minutes to find the end of line FAR away in the parking lot. Of course lots of other people made my same mistake and the line grew even longer. I was in that line, standing in the cold rain for two hours. They handed out plastic ponchos at the 1.5 hour mark, but I figured I would just be stuffy in one, and look stupid to boot! My gown was still holding out the rain, so it wasn't too bad yet. We walked out on the field in the worst excuse for four parallel lines I've ever seen, and took our seats on the metal folding chairs. Now I had a use for my poncho- placing it on the chair so I didn't have to sit in a pool of water. The introductions were okay, though all the umbrellas blocked much of my view. But at least it was nicely informal and we could chat on cell phones and such. Nikki had made it and was sitting with my parents, uncle Tom and aunt Cindy. Then Norm Dicks came on, as the guest speaker. His speech was SOOOO long! Was it 20 minutes? Ack. Not even much about college. It was mostly describing his various government environmental projects, and while I love environmentalism, I don't want to sit in the cold rain for 20 minutes hearing about it. Somewhere in the middle of his interminable speech, the gown finally soaked through and I started getting really cold and shivering. The person next to me said he was miserable in his poncho and looked like he wanted to die, so I figure both options resulted in misery. The audience got so sick of Norm that they started booing and stomping the ground. haha Finally, they started with the PhD's, who actually got their names read. That seemed to take forever as well. Luckily the Masters and Bachelors candidates went more quickly, as they didn't list our names. I wondered if I'd be nervous in front of such a large crowd, but I was so busy not slipping on the stage platforms in my tractionless shoes that I didn't even pay attention to the audience. We were initially supposed to stay until everyone walked, but I think they realized how much we wanted out, so they led us through the exit. I speed walked home, which helped warm me up, and changed into dry clothes. Nikki was supposed to come over, and we'd drive my car to pick up her son and go to my party, but she decided to drive her car to pick him up instead. And she got a flat tire doing that!
Such bad luck. But she was close to her friend's, so they got her tire fixed, though not before I had to leave for my party.
The party went very well! My parents had ordered about ten platters of food from Safeway, which were so delicious after not eating all day. Chicken strips, bbq ribs, veggies, fruit, sandwiches.... yum! Everybody was very proud of me too, and I had some good conversations with counsin Jenny, uncle Bob, aunt Darla, and my cousin Robby's fiance Marlo. Jenny wants to hang out sometime, and I'm trying to encourage her to be more social and get more friends. Robby got me a book "The Evolving Brain", and overall I got a few hundred bucks. I got to see my kitty Little One after everybody left, since he was hiding under the bed until then. I scratched his neck a long time, then played with his straw string (his favorite toy- a straw attached to a shoelace). He finally broke it! Biting the straw in half. I fed him some turkey from the platter sandwiches too. Cousin Jenny gave me a great photo she took of me holding Little One too. Because Jenny was present taking the pic, Little One was really scared. So he looks all angry with slanty eyes. haha
I'm finally a Bachelor of Science in Earth and Space Sciences! Yay!
Yesterday was a mix of tedium and happiness, where the latter replaced the former the instant I left for my parents' in Maple Valley after the ceremony. My parents arrived at my apartment at 11, and we all walked to the stadium a bit before noon. It was raining lightly (as opposed to Friday when it was hot and sunny and today when it's partly sunny), but my gown was initially soaking up the water without transferring it to the clothes beneath. We separated and I tried to find the line-up area. There were big signs with arrows pointing one way for the College of Arts and Sciences (which I'm in) and another way for All Other Colleges and Degree Programs, so I went toward the former, stood in line for a short time, then realized there was nowhere for Bachelors' of Science to stand! I had missed the fine print beneath the signs. Turns out they said "College of Arts and Sciences - Bachelors of Arts only" and "All other Colleges and Degree Programs - also Bachelors of Science in the College of Arts and Sciences". *grumble* So I walked around the stadium and found the head of the line for the section I needed, then walked a good few minutes to find the end of line FAR away in the parking lot. Of course lots of other people made my same mistake and the line grew even longer. I was in that line, standing in the cold rain for two hours. They handed out plastic ponchos at the 1.5 hour mark, but I figured I would just be stuffy in one, and look stupid to boot! My gown was still holding out the rain, so it wasn't too bad yet. We walked out on the field in the worst excuse for four parallel lines I've ever seen, and took our seats on the metal folding chairs. Now I had a use for my poncho- placing it on the chair so I didn't have to sit in a pool of water. The introductions were okay, though all the umbrellas blocked much of my view. But at least it was nicely informal and we could chat on cell phones and such. Nikki had made it and was sitting with my parents, uncle Tom and aunt Cindy. Then Norm Dicks came on, as the guest speaker. His speech was SOOOO long! Was it 20 minutes? Ack. Not even much about college. It was mostly describing his various government environmental projects, and while I love environmentalism, I don't want to sit in the cold rain for 20 minutes hearing about it. Somewhere in the middle of his interminable speech, the gown finally soaked through and I started getting really cold and shivering. The person next to me said he was miserable in his poncho and looked like he wanted to die, so I figure both options resulted in misery. The audience got so sick of Norm that they started booing and stomping the ground. haha Finally, they started with the PhD's, who actually got their names read. That seemed to take forever as well. Luckily the Masters and Bachelors candidates went more quickly, as they didn't list our names. I wondered if I'd be nervous in front of such a large crowd, but I was so busy not slipping on the stage platforms in my tractionless shoes that I didn't even pay attention to the audience. We were initially supposed to stay until everyone walked, but I think they realized how much we wanted out, so they led us through the exit. I speed walked home, which helped warm me up, and changed into dry clothes. Nikki was supposed to come over, and we'd drive my car to pick up her son and go to my party, but she decided to drive her car to pick him up instead. And she got a flat tire doing that!
The party went very well! My parents had ordered about ten platters of food from Safeway, which were so delicious after not eating all day. Chicken strips, bbq ribs, veggies, fruit, sandwiches.... yum! Everybody was very proud of me too, and I had some good conversations with counsin Jenny, uncle Bob, aunt Darla, and my cousin Robby's fiance Marlo. Jenny wants to hang out sometime, and I'm trying to encourage her to be more social and get more friends. Robby got me a book "The Evolving Brain", and overall I got a few hundred bucks. I got to see my kitty Little One after everybody left, since he was hiding under the bed until then. I scratched his neck a long time, then played with his straw string (his favorite toy- a straw attached to a shoelace). He finally broke it! Biting the straw in half. I fed him some turkey from the platter sandwiches too. Cousin Jenny gave me a great photo she took of me holding Little One too. Because Jenny was present taking the pic, Little One was really scared. So he looks all angry with slanty eyes. haha
I'm finally a Bachelor of Science in Earth and Space Sciences! Yay!
