Done
Well, that's that. I'm as graduated as a cylinder. Photos to follow. My parents were there on both days, and they gave me a bouquet of pink roses and snapdragons. negothick came for the weekend, and I was very glad she was there. She gave me a big bundle of excellent books. More on this later.
I'm at my parents' house, as I've just attended Angel, Curly and Squeak's own graduation ceremony at Arkham Women's College. It's been an educational three days.
--Listen to Elgar's "Pomp And Circumstance" often enough, and your brain will start providing words. In my case, what happened was: "That is! not! dead! which can eternal lie,/ And with! strange aeons even deathmaydie," over and over. This morning, there was a little variety in the form of a pipe band. I always hear the words of "Scotland's Depraved," but we knew that already.
--At the Miskatonic graduation ceremony, I heard no less than three separate graduates talking on their cell phones as they tried to find their families beforehand, saying, "I'm on the corner of [X]. I'm wearing a black robe and a flat hat." No obvious sense of irony.
--We looked like a bunch of crows. Speaking of birds, worried mourning doves flew over the auditorium at my graduation. I have a feeling we had taken their chairs.
--Best class stunt: the Arkham Women's College engineering students. When they were pronounced graduates, they took out white construction-workers' helmets from under their chairs, yanked off their mortarboards and replaced them with helmets.
--I did not see anybody naked under their robes. I did see beach balls being thumped around the crowd, a pocket flask making the rounds (I didn't know how many mouths had been on it, or I might have had a pull just for the hell of it), flying silly string, students doing the Wave and umpteen sequined mortarboards. One woman had sewn her mortarboard into Mickey Mouse ears. Also there were older students at both schools' graduations, and at Arkham Women's there was a graduate in her thirties who carried her baby in a Snugli to the podium, and another who led her young child there by the hand. It was adorable.
--The microphone broke down at the Humanities recognition ceremony, and they took half an hour to fix it. Then the Dean got up to make her speech, and discovered that pop music (Ke$ha) was playing over her words. Apparently the speakers were picking up the radio. The Dean, who must be a very patient woman, made her speech regardless of a gym full of students giggling and bopping along to Ke$ha.
--Best individual outfits: people's moms. Best-dressed overall: people's dads (men have a formal-clothing formula which women are presently without, so it's easier for them to stay consistent). Worst-dressed overall: male relatives or friends or boyfriends from teens to late twenties (sweatshirts, hostile facial expressions). Worst individual outfits: female graduates with nothing left to lose (I saw three women in zebra-print minidresses with nuns' headdresses with their names stuck on their headbands with a Bedazzler).
--I saw a woman today in a hat with a veil! She looked great. She and her husband were in their seventies or older. He was wearing a conservative suit and she was wearing a formal tailored white dress, and she had a white straw hat with a polka-dotted veil drawn down over her face. I don't believe I've ever seen a woman in a hat with a veil who wasn't a hipster trying to be ironic. OH! And I also saw a non-ironic top hat today! The Sheriff of this county opened proceedings by pounding on the floor with an axe and roaring that these proceedings were now open. He wore a tailcoat and a yellow waistcoat and a top hat, and he looked good too.
--Also, there is this specific kind of fabulous outfit that I'd never seen before this weekend, and now I've seen it like three times. It's a two-piece dress with a fitted skirt that flares out at the bottom. The top isn't exactly a jacket, as it's off-the-shoulder--a tight, tailored top that buttons up the front and has fitted sleeves, maybe short or forearm-length. And it's made of tapestry fabric with metallic threads, like a sari, in a floral pattern, and the top sometimes has floral trim. It all makes the wearer look neat and elegant but also curvy and cleavagey. Does this have a name, I wonder? Other than "sparkly dress of goodness"? All the women wearing it were black women in their forties or fifties who looked like someone's (glamorous) mom, and one of them, at least, was from another country. Maybe this is the national dress of Cape Verde or somewhere, and I just never saw it before. Or maybe I'm just thinking that because there were families in Indonesian or Korean national dress at both ceremonies. Anyhow, I liked it.
*
Now I'm facing a free afternoon. I no longer know what to do with free time. I have a few things to prepare for the concert negothick and I are doing tomorrow, but that won't take me the rest of the day. I know! I can decide what to do with the rest of my life! Er. Possibly best to start with a checklist. Also, I can watch... a movie. I can't remember the last time I sat down and watched a film all the way through. High time, then.
I'm at my parents' house, as I've just attended Angel, Curly and Squeak's own graduation ceremony at Arkham Women's College. It's been an educational three days.
--Listen to Elgar's "Pomp And Circumstance" often enough, and your brain will start providing words. In my case, what happened was: "That is! not! dead! which can eternal lie,/ And with! strange aeons even deathmaydie," over and over. This morning, there was a little variety in the form of a pipe band. I always hear the words of "Scotland's Depraved," but we knew that already.
--At the Miskatonic graduation ceremony, I heard no less than three separate graduates talking on their cell phones as they tried to find their families beforehand, saying, "I'm on the corner of [X]. I'm wearing a black robe and a flat hat." No obvious sense of irony.
--We looked like a bunch of crows. Speaking of birds, worried mourning doves flew over the auditorium at my graduation. I have a feeling we had taken their chairs.
--Best class stunt: the Arkham Women's College engineering students. When they were pronounced graduates, they took out white construction-workers' helmets from under their chairs, yanked off their mortarboards and replaced them with helmets.
--I did not see anybody naked under their robes. I did see beach balls being thumped around the crowd, a pocket flask making the rounds (I didn't know how many mouths had been on it, or I might have had a pull just for the hell of it), flying silly string, students doing the Wave and umpteen sequined mortarboards. One woman had sewn her mortarboard into Mickey Mouse ears. Also there were older students at both schools' graduations, and at Arkham Women's there was a graduate in her thirties who carried her baby in a Snugli to the podium, and another who led her young child there by the hand. It was adorable.
--The microphone broke down at the Humanities recognition ceremony, and they took half an hour to fix it. Then the Dean got up to make her speech, and discovered that pop music (Ke$ha) was playing over her words. Apparently the speakers were picking up the radio. The Dean, who must be a very patient woman, made her speech regardless of a gym full of students giggling and bopping along to Ke$ha.
--Best individual outfits: people's moms. Best-dressed overall: people's dads (men have a formal-clothing formula which women are presently without, so it's easier for them to stay consistent). Worst-dressed overall: male relatives or friends or boyfriends from teens to late twenties (sweatshirts, hostile facial expressions). Worst individual outfits: female graduates with nothing left to lose (I saw three women in zebra-print minidresses with nuns' headdresses with their names stuck on their headbands with a Bedazzler).
--I saw a woman today in a hat with a veil! She looked great. She and her husband were in their seventies or older. He was wearing a conservative suit and she was wearing a formal tailored white dress, and she had a white straw hat with a polka-dotted veil drawn down over her face. I don't believe I've ever seen a woman in a hat with a veil who wasn't a hipster trying to be ironic. OH! And I also saw a non-ironic top hat today! The Sheriff of this county opened proceedings by pounding on the floor with an axe and roaring that these proceedings were now open. He wore a tailcoat and a yellow waistcoat and a top hat, and he looked good too.
--Also, there is this specific kind of fabulous outfit that I'd never seen before this weekend, and now I've seen it like three times. It's a two-piece dress with a fitted skirt that flares out at the bottom. The top isn't exactly a jacket, as it's off-the-shoulder--a tight, tailored top that buttons up the front and has fitted sleeves, maybe short or forearm-length. And it's made of tapestry fabric with metallic threads, like a sari, in a floral pattern, and the top sometimes has floral trim. It all makes the wearer look neat and elegant but also curvy and cleavagey. Does this have a name, I wonder? Other than "sparkly dress of goodness"? All the women wearing it were black women in their forties or fifties who looked like someone's (glamorous) mom, and one of them, at least, was from another country. Maybe this is the national dress of Cape Verde or somewhere, and I just never saw it before. Or maybe I'm just thinking that because there were families in Indonesian or Korean national dress at both ceremonies. Anyhow, I liked it.
*
Now I'm facing a free afternoon. I no longer know what to do with free time. I have a few things to prepare for the concert negothick and I are doing tomorrow, but that won't take me the rest of the day. I know! I can decide what to do with the rest of my life! Er. Possibly best to start with a checklist. Also, I can watch... a movie. I can't remember the last time I sat down and watched a film all the way through. High time, then.