6/11/2011: Sat, we breakfasted early --brighter day but still cool -- & made our way to the Bald Spot on campus. Read in the program that A had graduated cum laude. V. pretty Telemann flute & bass sonata playing – I thought it was maybe Mark, but not, tho he was in the commencement band. L arrived – Beth & So stood on some rocks off to the side (Alex stayed w/ Gloria).
2 student speakers – one abt time – her 4 years of 10 week terms and how she’d have to learn to measure time differently. The other, a developing poet, abt seizing time and mindfulness. One honorary degree recipient was v. brief – seemed a little unsteady—the other (a joint music & classics appt) about the importance of playfulness.
They finished – they always do – and the graduates began receiving degrees. Once A had been called (not that I could see the stage that well) I drifted over & talked w/ B & Sofia (who was hungry & bored, eventually left f. Gloria’s) and then hung around the passageway formed by blue mesh, that the faculty would line up in, and the grads would pass through.
A came striding by, then walked around greeting friends – Edee was there & took a pic of us but I didn’t have the presence of mind to take his pic with her – was that Freudian? I pressed her to join us for dinner, but she demurred.
There was a picnic lunch available fr the college, but no tables to eat it at, and no containers to carry food into Sayles – A wanted to continue greeting friends. Eventually, we went to Kurry Kebab & ate too much Indian food. A talked abt the cutoffs for cum laude (distinction in comps & 3.25 GPA). Abt how he lent his car out less now that the alarm was armed (since the battery drained & was jump-started in NO) but he doesn’t want to replace the clicker-opener.
Drove S & Mom back to the B&B to rest & fell asleep myself, tho no good reason to be tired. A said he wanted to nap, too – graduating was draining. In fact, he spent the aft helping load two of his surplus sofas into a friend’s van. Drove back to Gloaria’s, but G not there (she’d gone to the library for movies to amuse Alex while we were @ dinner). Went for short walk w/ Beth, but then started worrying abt getting to dinner resv on time, so drove back to b&b, collected S& Mom (w/ some difficulty – S wanted more time to look over the route), scurried up to Minneapolis to Murray’s, a v. old-fashioned steak place, where we ate huge amts of food and A accumulated a stack of left-over boxes to take home. Sofia v. tired.
And that’s that: days of driving hither & thither & sitting around talking and eating too much & not exercising. A seemed so happy & at ease in this little world, these 4 years. He seems comfortable with a much wider range of humanity than in my day (40 yrs ago): Af-Ams, gay, lesbian, transgender.
Flight home a couple hours late – read the NYT & shuffled around. Home by maybe 8 PM, made scrambled eggs for dinner & collapsed into bed.
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