I'm a grownup

A month too late, I figured I should write about graduation. I got a weekend off work to go down to Eugene to pick up my master's degree -- rather, to walk in the ceremony and get my diploma holder -- more than a month later I still don't have the actual diploma. The trip involved a lot of driving (about a third of which was through the beautiful Columbia Gorge) and after I came back I needed a vacation to recover from my "time off," but it was nice to see some of my friends again and it felt great to get to have my "hood" put on in front of the big crowd at Mac Court. The ceremony itself was pretty standard graduation stuff -- it was just the departmental one, so there wasn't really a speaker, but they gave out a few awards (I didn't get any) and then went through the graduate students and then hundreds of undergrads while those of us who had already gone sat there starving (or, while I sat there starving because the bakery I tried to go to for breakfast wasn't open when I got there and I had therefore not eaten anything). Sadly, I didn't get many pictures -- my parents aren't the type to run up in front of everyone and take a picture of their kid -- so all I have is the photo they took of the big screen and the professional one taken by the company the school hired. It's funny. I'm the type to bring my camera to events and take a million pictures of all my friends, but I never make people take pictures of me at my own big events. I don't have nearly enough photos of me after my hood was put on, and I can't pose for any fake ones because the robe was only a rental. My parents had my camera so I didn't get any pictures with my friends except the one Matt took (see below).



My parents and brother came up to Eugene (rather, my parents came up -- my brother lives there) and went to the graduation and then had to get back rather quickly, so I spent the day after the ceremony with my friend Anna, her husband Josh, and their awesome kid, Avery. He's two and is quite the little genius, obsessed with the alphabet. That's a little copy editor in training. I got to read him the book I bought for his birthday, which was the week before. I hadn't seen the book since I bought it online and had it shipped right to him. The book uses the letters of his name and has a little poem about the other words you can make with those letters ("A is for apple, V is for victory," that kind of thing). I miss hanging out with that family. I can't wait for them to find time to come visit me (hint hint).