Amy's Graduation
Friday, my sister, Amy, graduated college cum laude with a bachelors degree in biomedical engineering. They actually had a ceremony on Thursday with everyone, but Jordan and I opted to go to the smaller Friday afternoon ceremony. I took the day off of work to drive to Phoenix early.... which didn't happen because the tide came in and I spent the morning medicating myself with blue pills so I wouldn't throw up on the drive up to Phoenix.
After picking my mom up at home, we drove back across town and met up with my dad and sister at Amy's place... where we killed some time watching episodes from this weird show called "Cheaters". Then we headed out to Amy's graduation. We got there early and took some family photos. Amira, Amy's friend (whose name I probably misspelt), was there too, so we got a few family photos... then we went into the arena and waited for the program to start. Jordan was bored. I told him to just download a game onto his phone.
Not too long after we'd been sitting, bagpipe music began to play "Scottish Folk Meleody". It was THE most awesome graduation march music ever. (Pomp and Circumstance is SO overdone). Then the graduates marched in and were seated and the whole dealie-o got started.
Amy's graduation ceremony was longer than mine because they lumped all the engineering disciplines together, whereas for mine there was just the civil engineers. They played this "introduction to engineering" movie on the scoreboard camera at ASU's "Wells Fargo Arena"... which was amusing because they showed footage of the Mars lander (which is a U of A project) and also of the Hubble Telescope lens (which is also a UA thing... in fact, my husband works at the UA mirror lab polishing those giant telescope mirrors). That was funny.
The "Fulton Homes" guy spoke at Amy's graduation. He forgot his speech in his car, so he was just making things up. It turned out to be the most interesting, I thought, of all the graduation speeches. There was also some guy from India speaking. Having been in the college of engineering myself, where half your professors were from India, I had an easy time figuring out what the fellow was saying. My mom said she could barely understand him. I thought that was funny. Then, after all the speeches were given, the names of everyone were read in order of doctorate, masters, bachelors degrees.
The most annoying and distracting thing about the whole event was the people in the row in front of us. The woman sitting immediately in front of me had dipped her whole head in mousse to get that poofy, curly look. The smell made my throat sore and my eyes itchy and scratchy-- I'm allergic to strong smells like that and perfume and makeup when it's caked on real thick. I've been taking allergy medicine, but it was STILL bothering me. My dad offered to swap seats with me, but I declined on account of another issue I was having with moving (and something about pain medicine wearing off) and the woman's hair turned out to be the lesser of the two evils. I rectified the assaulting smell by burying my nose in the program book, which smelt like freshly published paper-- a smell I love. The other annoying thing was the people in front of us had friends they were saving seats for... and they were late. They all stood up right about the time my sister walked into the arena. Then, of course, the people behind us were dexterity challenged. The woman behind me dropped her purse on my head. Twice. Lady, when you have something on your lap and you lean forward or stand up it WILL slide off!
After the ceremony, we ate out at Top Shelf. Then hung out at Amy's to drink the Martinelli's that we brought her. It was getting late, so we all came home to my 'rent's house and went to bed. It was good-times... but the whole day threw me off because it was Friday and I didn't have to work. I kept thinking we'd have to go to church on Saturday... but we did other fun stuff... which I'll have to write about later.
After picking my mom up at home, we drove back across town and met up with my dad and sister at Amy's place... where we killed some time watching episodes from this weird show called "Cheaters". Then we headed out to Amy's graduation. We got there early and took some family photos. Amira, Amy's friend (whose name I probably misspelt), was there too, so we got a few family photos... then we went into the arena and waited for the program to start. Jordan was bored. I told him to just download a game onto his phone.
Not too long after we'd been sitting, bagpipe music began to play "Scottish Folk Meleody". It was THE most awesome graduation march music ever. (Pomp and Circumstance is SO overdone). Then the graduates marched in and were seated and the whole dealie-o got started.
Amy's graduation ceremony was longer than mine because they lumped all the engineering disciplines together, whereas for mine there was just the civil engineers. They played this "introduction to engineering" movie on the scoreboard camera at ASU's "Wells Fargo Arena"... which was amusing because they showed footage of the Mars lander (which is a U of A project) and also of the Hubble Telescope lens (which is also a UA thing... in fact, my husband works at the UA mirror lab polishing those giant telescope mirrors). That was funny.
The "Fulton Homes" guy spoke at Amy's graduation. He forgot his speech in his car, so he was just making things up. It turned out to be the most interesting, I thought, of all the graduation speeches. There was also some guy from India speaking. Having been in the college of engineering myself, where half your professors were from India, I had an easy time figuring out what the fellow was saying. My mom said she could barely understand him. I thought that was funny. Then, after all the speeches were given, the names of everyone were read in order of doctorate, masters, bachelors degrees.
The most annoying and distracting thing about the whole event was the people in the row in front of us. The woman sitting immediately in front of me had dipped her whole head in mousse to get that poofy, curly look. The smell made my throat sore and my eyes itchy and scratchy-- I'm allergic to strong smells like that and perfume and makeup when it's caked on real thick. I've been taking allergy medicine, but it was STILL bothering me. My dad offered to swap seats with me, but I declined on account of another issue I was having with moving (and something about pain medicine wearing off) and the woman's hair turned out to be the lesser of the two evils. I rectified the assaulting smell by burying my nose in the program book, which smelt like freshly published paper-- a smell I love. The other annoying thing was the people in front of us had friends they were saving seats for... and they were late. They all stood up right about the time my sister walked into the arena. Then, of course, the people behind us were dexterity challenged. The woman behind me dropped her purse on my head. Twice. Lady, when you have something on your lap and you lean forward or stand up it WILL slide off!
After the ceremony, we ate out at Top Shelf. Then hung out at Amy's to drink the Martinelli's that we brought her. It was getting late, so we all came home to my 'rent's house and went to bed. It was good-times... but the whole day threw me off because it was Friday and I didn't have to work. I kept thinking we'd have to go to church on Saturday... but we did other fun stuff... which I'll have to write about later.