Convocation 2009
Well internet, I have finally done it. I have graduated. I realize that this one is a little late in coming but I've been sick since convocation. Turns out that it's a toss up between bronchitis or sinusitis - either way both options suck. I have been given some medication though, which has both its pros and cons. The pro, obviously, is that I'm getting better. The con (KHAAAN!!!!!!!!) of all this is that it leaves the taste of rubber bands and sweaty gym socks in my mouth. The taste I can definitely do without - getting better makes it almost worth it. But on to convocation.
The day started with hair appointments for Mom and I. They were threatened to be ruined, given the fact that it was snowing that day. Yeah, you heard me. Snow. On May 26th, it was snowing. Wet, and cold nasty little flakes that melted instantly but gave no sign of giving up and going away. Mom and I both had our hair curled, and while it came out nice, neither one of us got the look we wanted. I wanted big loose curls done with those ginormous rollers, and Mom wanted hers done the way it had been done before the last time she had been at this particular salon. Instead, Mom came out with a look that was a mild throwback to the classics 80s high hair - which she was able to fix rather quickly by just coming her hair a little to each side. My hair, while not what I wanted like I said, still looked nice with curls everywhere. Our hair survived the day of wet and windy snow, thankfully.
Then, we came home and got dressed. Mom looked lovely as usual in a beautiful chocolate brown blazer, and deep brown dress pants. The blazer was stunning, with ivory border around the lapels of the jacket, which looked amazing with the cream colored blouse she wore. I had intended to wear a dress I bought in Florida.
Unfortunately, since the dress was bought two or three years ago I have made somewhat of a pig out of myself, and the dress unfortunately doesn't fit anymore. This revelation was the cause of a near state of panic and hysteria - well, okay ... so I'm exaggerating a little. But I did have myself prepared to go out shopping for a new dress two days before convocation. However, this was avoided as it struck me that I still have the dress that I wore to my neice's Christening last year - which thankfully still fit.
This isn't a very good picture, but the point is that it fit. Thank God for dresses made from polyester.
Then, we drove to St. John's and went to the Arts and Culture Center where the ceremony was held and set about the business of getting our tickets, picking out a frame for my degree and picking up my cap and gown. We were allowed to keep out hats, but the way I looked at it, it was just one more thing to have around the house that would be a glorified dust collector. I have enough of those thank you very much.The ceremony wasn't as awful as I was predicting. I had myself prepared for a long, onerous ceremony full of old fuddy-duddies droning on and on endlessly about things that didn't really hold the interest of roughly two hundred young twenty-something year olds who have shelled out 30- 40 thousand dollars for piece of paper. But, it didn't go like that at all. Before the ceremony started the Marshall (he even had the pointy star shaped badge that looked liked he belonged to the Texas Rangers than briefing us graduands over the protocol of the convocation ceremony) who was amusing as he gave a brief walk-thru of what we could expect during the ceremony. He was a pleasant man, and kept us giggling and chuckling as he made his short 10 minute spoiler. He was actually a high light of the ceremony. The other highlight being the honorary degree of Laws being given to Dr. Inkpen. Her speech was amusing, and the woman who introduced her was a lovely little British woman who could give any male orator a run for their money.
Anyway, once the graduands were called on to be conferred their degree, I felt my heart start to pound, my palms got sweaty, and I kept telling myself "Don't trip. Don't fart, and for the love of God don't fall off the stool." I never did any of these things, thankfully and I never lost my cap either, unlike a few people during the ceremony.
During the conferring of the degrees, they asked for the audience to hold their applause until all the graduands had been given their degree, but they did understand and realize that some members of the audience might not be able to contain themselves out of sheer joy and pride of seeing their special graduand receiving their degree. Some graduands received various hoots and hollars as their name was called, and as they got closer and closer to my name I began to wonder if Mom and Dad were going to give various exaltations. I was half expecting to hear Mom let out an ear shattering whistle and for her and Dad to break out into a dance of joy in the aisle seeing me walk across the stage. They were able to contain themselves though, but only barely I think.
After the ceremony, everyone was scrambling for pictures. And while we didn't take as many as I had thought, we still came away with some really nice ones. One of my favorites is the one of Mom, Dad, and I.
This one was actually the subject of a mildly disgruntled parent, standing opposite us. There was actually a line up to get pictures taken at this spot, but since we were among the first ones there, there wasn't a line up and we were due to get our pictures taken after the rather tall, and very proud man who liked he was from Africa somewhere. Anyway, the photo's we took here were quick and few so that said disgruntled parent from loosing her shit.
Anyway, we took several more before we went out for supper at a lovely restaurant called Merlot's Press and Bean. It was divine and I gorged myself silly on food. There was a huge bowl of steamed mussels as an appetizer, followed by a main course of pan-fried salmon served with long grain and wild rice and some vegetables. I asked for some tartar sauce to have with my salmon and the chef made some up, specially for me. It was hands down the best tartar sauce I have ever had. Then, for dessert I had a fresh fruit crepe, which was again utterly divine. We also had the most fabulous server, who took a group picture of us all.
All in all, it was a pretty good day. Dev and Daddy both bought me the most beautiful roses. Half are sitting in a vase on a mantle in the living room and the other half is in another vase sitting on my dresser. The kids also gave me a beautiful gift: a matching watch, necklace, earrings, and bracelet. Mom and Dad also gave me a new white purse and Class of 2009 picture frame; Ern and Kel gave me a gift certificate for the liquor store and a beautiful frame. Jen and Pathy gave me another gift certificate for Second Cup, a lovely little cafe in the mall where I work and an awesome card that plays Bad To The Bone and has turned out to be an endless avenue of entertainment for Leah. She opens it all the time and sits there, half bounding half dancing too it in that adorable way babies do. There was also a wide assortment of cards from other people and Mom and Dad also said they would either buy me tickets to Cirque du Soleli , or a flight to Toronto. It's an agonizing decision to make because I want to do both. I'm having a most terrible time in figuring out what to do.
Anyhoo, I should go along my merry way. I'm nearly finished my book. I've spent most of the day reading it, cuddled up on the couch under my favorite blue blanket.
Cheers!!
xxoo
The day started with hair appointments for Mom and I. They were threatened to be ruined, given the fact that it was snowing that day. Yeah, you heard me. Snow. On May 26th, it was snowing. Wet, and cold nasty little flakes that melted instantly but gave no sign of giving up and going away. Mom and I both had our hair curled, and while it came out nice, neither one of us got the look we wanted. I wanted big loose curls done with those ginormous rollers, and Mom wanted hers done the way it had been done before the last time she had been at this particular salon. Instead, Mom came out with a look that was a mild throwback to the classics 80s high hair - which she was able to fix rather quickly by just coming her hair a little to each side. My hair, while not what I wanted like I said, still looked nice with curls everywhere. Our hair survived the day of wet and windy snow, thankfully.
Then, we came home and got dressed. Mom looked lovely as usual in a beautiful chocolate brown blazer, and deep brown dress pants. The blazer was stunning, with ivory border around the lapels of the jacket, which looked amazing with the cream colored blouse she wore. I had intended to wear a dress I bought in Florida.
Unfortunately, since the dress was bought two or three years ago I have made somewhat of a pig out of myself, and the dress unfortunately doesn't fit anymore. This revelation was the cause of a near state of panic and hysteria - well, okay ... so I'm exaggerating a little. But I did have myself prepared to go out shopping for a new dress two days before convocation. However, this was avoided as it struck me that I still have the dress that I wore to my neice's Christening last year - which thankfully still fit.
This isn't a very good picture, but the point is that it fit. Thank God for dresses made from polyester.Then, we drove to St. John's and went to the Arts and Culture Center where the ceremony was held and set about the business of getting our tickets, picking out a frame for my degree and picking up my cap and gown. We were allowed to keep out hats, but the way I looked at it, it was just one more thing to have around the house that would be a glorified dust collector. I have enough of those thank you very much.The ceremony wasn't as awful as I was predicting. I had myself prepared for a long, onerous ceremony full of old fuddy-duddies droning on and on endlessly about things that didn't really hold the interest of roughly two hundred young twenty-something year olds who have shelled out 30- 40 thousand dollars for piece of paper. But, it didn't go like that at all. Before the ceremony started the Marshall (he even had the pointy star shaped badge that looked liked he belonged to the Texas Rangers than briefing us graduands over the protocol of the convocation ceremony) who was amusing as he gave a brief walk-thru of what we could expect during the ceremony. He was a pleasant man, and kept us giggling and chuckling as he made his short 10 minute spoiler. He was actually a high light of the ceremony. The other highlight being the honorary degree of Laws being given to Dr. Inkpen. Her speech was amusing, and the woman who introduced her was a lovely little British woman who could give any male orator a run for their money.
Anyway, once the graduands were called on to be conferred their degree, I felt my heart start to pound, my palms got sweaty, and I kept telling myself "Don't trip. Don't fart, and for the love of God don't fall off the stool." I never did any of these things, thankfully and I never lost my cap either, unlike a few people during the ceremony.
During the conferring of the degrees, they asked for the audience to hold their applause until all the graduands had been given their degree, but they did understand and realize that some members of the audience might not be able to contain themselves out of sheer joy and pride of seeing their special graduand receiving their degree. Some graduands received various hoots and hollars as their name was called, and as they got closer and closer to my name I began to wonder if Mom and Dad were going to give various exaltations. I was half expecting to hear Mom let out an ear shattering whistle and for her and Dad to break out into a dance of joy in the aisle seeing me walk across the stage. They were able to contain themselves though, but only barely I think.After the ceremony, everyone was scrambling for pictures. And while we didn't take as many as I had thought, we still came away with some really nice ones. One of my favorites is the one of Mom, Dad, and I.
This one was actually the subject of a mildly disgruntled parent, standing opposite us. There was actually a line up to get pictures taken at this spot, but since we were among the first ones there, there wasn't a line up and we were due to get our pictures taken after the rather tall, and very proud man who liked he was from Africa somewhere. Anyway, the photo's we took here were quick and few so that said disgruntled parent from loosing her shit.Anyway, we took several more before we went out for supper at a lovely restaurant called Merlot's Press and Bean. It was divine and I gorged myself silly on food. There was a huge bowl of steamed mussels as an appetizer, followed by a main course of pan-fried salmon served with long grain and wild rice and some vegetables. I asked for some tartar sauce to have with my salmon and the chef made some up, specially for me. It was hands down the best tartar sauce I have ever had. Then, for dessert I had a fresh fruit crepe, which was again utterly divine. We also had the most fabulous server, who took a group picture of us all.
All in all, it was a pretty good day. Dev and Daddy both bought me the most beautiful roses. Half are sitting in a vase on a mantle in the living room and the other half is in another vase sitting on my dresser. The kids also gave me a beautiful gift: a matching watch, necklace, earrings, and bracelet. Mom and Dad also gave me a new white purse and Class of 2009 picture frame; Ern and Kel gave me a gift certificate for the liquor store and a beautiful frame. Jen and Pathy gave me another gift certificate for Second Cup, a lovely little cafe in the mall where I work and an awesome card that plays Bad To The Bone and has turned out to be an endless avenue of entertainment for Leah. She opens it all the time and sits there, half bounding half dancing too it in that adorable way babies do. There was also a wide assortment of cards from other people and Mom and Dad also said they would either buy me tickets to Cirque du Soleli , or a flight to Toronto. It's an agonizing decision to make because I want to do both. I'm having a most terrible time in figuring out what to do.Anyhoo, I should go along my merry way. I'm nearly finished my book. I've spent most of the day reading it, cuddled up on the couch under my favorite blue blanket.
Cheers!!
xxoo
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