Sunday, May 31, 2009

Chapter 3-Graduation

Ok, here is the next chapter. In which Dave and I totally screw up in the photo department.

But first, Miss Ellen Purl Diva dog’s name is Loki. Just to let you all know. She very much liked my picture of her and little Loki.

Ok, so we got up on Saturday, May 9th, 2009 and got ready for the big day. The graduation was in Portland at a huge place called Cumberland County Civic center.

DSC00134

We got there about 45 minutes to start and the place was already pretty full, but we go two seats in the front row on the second level. What luck.

P1010237

First came some bagpipers. (I know-the underneath the kilt question  begs attention but I refuse to expound on it here)

                    p1010228

Then came the faculty and some special person leading them holding a big stick thing. It was a special stick thing but really, it looked like a table leg. (I am thinking I am not giving this the proper respect but all I could think of was “Man her arm must be tired”)

p1010229

Can you see her up there? Click to make bigger.

Cody filed in shortly afterwards

                   p1010231

We were pretty much screaming and waving at him although he says he could not hear us, but he looked right up at us and was properly embarrassed by our behavior. We waved at him throughout the ceremony as he was sitting right below us.

 P1010239

Ok, this one you really have to make bigger. Cody is in the middle and the guy who is looking up at the camera is Seth, his old roommate and good buddy. Who happens to be from Tacoma/Seattle. Go figure.

OK, here’s where it starts to get a little dicey, but we are still good with two operational camera’s. (See where this is going?)

The speaker was excellent. Her name is Rita Colwell and she is a professor at U of Maryland and Johns Hopkins School of Public Health. How could I not like her? She is into infectious diseases and water issues. And to top it off she has a PhD in Oceanography from the UDub. Seriously, the U of W thing put her over the top. Plus she was pretty interesting. Hello-in wikipedia-obviously she has made it to the big time.

           DSC00142

Then we started the graduating procedure. We were good, oh so good. Seth started to walk and Cody was not far behind. We made a plan. Dave was going to take a picture of Cody on the big screen and I was going to get him on stage.

Here goes Seth…get ready….

         P1010245

OH NO-dead battery-seconds to go, what to do-we came prepared with another set of batteries-load new batteries in camera, new batteries loaded, Cody is mounting the stairs to the stage

OH NO-new batteries not functional. Still trying to get cameral to work-hoping for act of God. Cody’s name is called-he’s going up-Dave change of plans

CHANGE OF PLANS-get him on stage-hurry-quick……..ohhhh, too late. Dave is unable to switch gears after the original plan had been drilled into his head. I just caught a glimpse of Cody going across the stage and then he was done. This is what we got.

DSC00146

                              DSC00145 

We also got some blurry walking back to the seat pictures which I will not torture you with. Can you believe it? &%*#$@!! The only consolation is that they took pictures of him getting his diploma (just like the top screen) and I ordered a bunch of those. Hopefully they will arrive soon and I will scan and blog accordingly.

Dave and I are “special occasion photography challenged” which was also demonstrated at a graduation for his son last week.

OK, so we missed it. We are sad and sitting there watching the graduates walk and all of a sudden a beach ball starts flying through the seated grads. Then another. They were playing beach ball to stave off boredom. It was great. I felt the total ADD of America’s future. I tried to get some pics with our one functional camera but they were pretty blurry. Here is one

P1010243

If the ball went up to the front it was the responsibility of the returning to the seat person to retrieve and start the game again. I think it was really quite organized.

         P1010240

This is a poor picture but on the lower left you can see a blurry UFO flying by-that is a beach ball. The beach ball also made the front page of the Portland Maine Newspaper. Ahh, the class of 2009.

So, it got done and they filed out. Dave got a blurry picture of that (the little camera needs a steadier hand-but he did do well on the screen shot of Cody….)

Of course, we did not get a picture of him afterwards in his cap and gown. God, I swear we can’t be trusted at lifetime events.

So we met up with Kate and her parents who took us out to lunch at the coolest place. It took a while to get there because, as Cody so aptly pointed out, the graduation caused massive gridlock in Portland.

We went to Two Lights Lobster Shack, south and a little east of Portland. Go to the link for a slide show close up of their food and establishment. I said food first because that was my interest. See that kid with all that food in front of her? That was what we ate, in about that quantity.

               DSC00154

                                  DSC00155

DSC00156

This is Kate’s family-mom Debbie and dad Mike. Plus Kate and the happy grad. They took a picture of us too which we didn’t have them take in our camera because we were still reeling from the malfunction earlier.  We continued the calorie fest with lobster rolls, fried clams, onion rings. Delicious.

And back to Cody’s house we went.

Dinner was at Falmouth Sea Grill. It took us a couple of tries to get there because we first turned into an assisted living facility thinking it was the restaurant. Fortunately, we realized our mistake before we went in.  (The restaurant does not have its own website so I linked to a review)

It also was delicious. I had stuffed Haddock with baked potato and fresh asparagus, followed by a healthy  helping of creme brulee. Always thinking, I wore expandable pants. Cody had about 8 pounds of stuffed lobster.

            DSC00157

I present Cody Geddes, University of New England Class of 2009.

 

And so our day ended. (I got this picture but could not get him actually graduating, irony?)

No comments: