Pomp and Circumstance

My daughter graduated today. It was lovely, I almost cried. Once from emotion, many more times from boredom. There were approximately 500 thousand graduating today, give or take.

The processional was long, by the end we were referencing the Gettysburg address. Luckily they did away with the fancy walk. They were only required to stay a taped off area away from the group in front of them; some of them still got it wrong.

The flag ceremony was accompanied by all sorts of random whoops and hollers from the stands, "yes Joe sees you. Shut up it's the flag, show some respect. I was raised by wolves and know better." Afterwards the choir was kind enough to sing us a lullaby which was nice because I was in need of nap by then.

After endless moments we were all quite ravished. It had been nearly an hour since I'd consumed a whole meal. I jokingly had asked hubby beforehand if there would be beer concessions. No beer, but you could get everything else. Has it all lost a little pomp if we can nosh on nachos? I'm sure Harvard brings in a pretty buck from it's graduation nacho concessions.

But back to the circumstance. I understand that some honor should be given those who shine academically, but speaking doesn't have to be one of them. The Valedictorian and Salutatorian should understand as well as any that certain privileges should go to those who excel in that area. While I am sure those boys kicked math butt, I'd rather listen to some speecher, thus saving me the hassle of ever attending a speech and debate meet.

My daughter fell alphabetically in the third row. We didn't know it was acceptable to leave the moment her feet hit the floor after receiving her fake diploma. (Well, don't know if it was fake, mine was. Traded in the blank one for a real one with my name on it after the ceremony.) By the time we hit the P's we were the only ones in our section. Next time we'll know better. Hopefully our T children will be A children before their ceremony. We might catch a matinee before they miss us.

****Sorry Google Readers, insect emergency accidentally posted too soon.

After our social blunder of staying for the entire ceremony, we joined the other social infants in the cattle drive towards the escalators. We rested easy knowing that in the likely event we were trampled it was indeed cold enough to keep our bodies preserved until they found us. I got separated from my family somewhere near the restrooms????The crowdal wave carried me out the door so I could enjoy my second hand smoking. Had I known, I'd have come prepared, cigarette in mouth as soon as the great outdoors was in sight. Again, I'm kind of a social geek, I did however observe that it might have been smarter for them to light their cigarettes before exiting the shelter of the building. The wind was blowing somewhere around 75 mph, and it brought the 1st hand smokers to a halt, causing some bumping and cursing.

All in all it was a good ceremony. Luckily with six children I will learn to enjoy them more as they come along. I was sorry to have missed four already this year. You know, 2 year old preschool class to 3 year old preschool class, times two. 3-4 preschool. 8th grade. At this rate I figure I have approximately 792,412 graduations to miss. One down, five to go, no wait four, the twins will graduate the same year. Yippee.