Wednesday, June 14, 2006
A weekend heavy on the symbolism
Last week was a bit of a crazy week for me. Now that it is over, it is a bit of a let down.
Last week was the last week of school, at least for this degree. I took vacation time from work on Wednesday through Friday, but even with 3 days off, it did not really feel like much of a break. Here is the breakdown of that crazy week.........
Wednesday: Wednesday morning was set aside for rehersal for the pinning ceremony, and then a class luncheon afterwards. We were only given the start time for rehersal, no end time and no location. Hmmmm, not exactly a welcoming sign, but I had the whole day off so I was not overly concerned. So, I penciled in 2 hours of time in my planner for the rehersal, and made an educated guess about the location. Sure enough, rehersal was in the gym (just like the ceremony would be) so my first guess was correct. Since I was right with my guess on one question, I was feeling pretty good about my guess on the other. Boy was I wrong! We spent a sum total of about 30 minutes on rehersal! Somehow, they managed to take a 2+ hour ceremony last about 30 minutes. Of course, we did not actually do the part of the ceremony which actually took the longest time (the reading of the bios/thank yous), but still seemed a bit rushed. When all was said and done (such as it was), I think everyone was more confused after rehersal than before. I left there not exactly feeling comfortable about the upcoming ceremony.
Lunch was scheduled to start at noon, but we were finished with rehersal at just after 10. Hmmmm, so what to do? Most of the class spent about a half hour just hanging out, catching up on the latest news/gossip and one of the class officer announced that the restaurant could seat us an hour early if we wanted to go there early. Since this place served alcohol, off we went to the restaurant. Over all, a good time was had by all. Much food, much alcohol (some people had more than others....), much laughing. All in all a good time. Spent the rest of the day wandering around window shopping since the cleaning lady was at the house and I did not want to be in the way.
Thursday: the actual ceremony was in the evening, so I had most of the day to sit around and relax. Of course, the closer it got to time to go downtown, the more nervous I got. Of course Buster was being feisty all day and teasing me about having to work late, or forgetting he had to be there or whatever else he could think of. Of course, I should have expected this when I told him he had to go up on stage with me and be the person to actually pin me. The ceremony actually went A LOT better than I had expected. We only had a couple of minor glitches. The biggest problem was that we had something like 600 people crammed into the gym and no where near enough ventilation. That would not have even really been a problem if people had stuck to the 100 word limit in their bios/thank yous. Our friend B who was there said they needed the music from the Oscars which started playing after a certain amount of time. Afterwards, Buster told me that he was almost crying when he was up there pinning me. Guess my thanks to him was better than I though!
Friday: was a day of recovery. I was feeling pretty drained/tired. I spent much of the day sitting on my butt playing video games. Definately needed that by this point.
Saturday: we had a wedding to go to for a lesbian couple from my work. Buster did not really want to go, partly because he had a village meeting at 8am that morning, and partly because he was not going to know anyone there (since it will be a bunch of people I know from work). Once we got there, he said he was actually having more fun than he expected. The ceremony was simply elegant and beautiful. The food at the reception was great, and the bar was open. Some of my coworkers too liberal advantage of that fact! I was a little surprised that I managed to get Buster out on the dance floor during the "couples" dance, but since the brides specifically told us to get out there and dance, it is not like we had much choice. It was a little surprising that we were one of the last couples out there when the DJ started asking people to step off based on how long the couple had been together. I guess 10 1/2 years actually IS a long time. We got home way later than I had expected, but it was a fun evening.
Sunday: was another day of recovering and dreading Monday morning. By this time, I was almost ready to go back to work, mostly because I'll be less busy there!
Man, this ended up being much longer than I had expected. I need to make more frequent updates, or have less going on in my life......
Last week was the last week of school, at least for this degree. I took vacation time from work on Wednesday through Friday, but even with 3 days off, it did not really feel like much of a break. Here is the breakdown of that crazy week.........
Wednesday: Wednesday morning was set aside for rehersal for the pinning ceremony, and then a class luncheon afterwards. We were only given the start time for rehersal, no end time and no location. Hmmmm, not exactly a welcoming sign, but I had the whole day off so I was not overly concerned. So, I penciled in 2 hours of time in my planner for the rehersal, and made an educated guess about the location. Sure enough, rehersal was in the gym (just like the ceremony would be) so my first guess was correct. Since I was right with my guess on one question, I was feeling pretty good about my guess on the other. Boy was I wrong! We spent a sum total of about 30 minutes on rehersal! Somehow, they managed to take a 2+ hour ceremony last about 30 minutes. Of course, we did not actually do the part of the ceremony which actually took the longest time (the reading of the bios/thank yous), but still seemed a bit rushed. When all was said and done (such as it was), I think everyone was more confused after rehersal than before. I left there not exactly feeling comfortable about the upcoming ceremony.
Lunch was scheduled to start at noon, but we were finished with rehersal at just after 10. Hmmmm, so what to do? Most of the class spent about a half hour just hanging out, catching up on the latest news/gossip and one of the class officer announced that the restaurant could seat us an hour early if we wanted to go there early. Since this place served alcohol, off we went to the restaurant. Over all, a good time was had by all. Much food, much alcohol (some people had more than others....), much laughing. All in all a good time. Spent the rest of the day wandering around window shopping since the cleaning lady was at the house and I did not want to be in the way.
Thursday: the actual ceremony was in the evening, so I had most of the day to sit around and relax. Of course, the closer it got to time to go downtown, the more nervous I got. Of course Buster was being feisty all day and teasing me about having to work late, or forgetting he had to be there or whatever else he could think of. Of course, I should have expected this when I told him he had to go up on stage with me and be the person to actually pin me. The ceremony actually went A LOT better than I had expected. We only had a couple of minor glitches. The biggest problem was that we had something like 600 people crammed into the gym and no where near enough ventilation. That would not have even really been a problem if people had stuck to the 100 word limit in their bios/thank yous. Our friend B who was there said they needed the music from the Oscars which started playing after a certain amount of time. Afterwards, Buster told me that he was almost crying when he was up there pinning me. Guess my thanks to him was better than I though!
Friday: was a day of recovery. I was feeling pretty drained/tired. I spent much of the day sitting on my butt playing video games. Definately needed that by this point.
Saturday: we had a wedding to go to for a lesbian couple from my work. Buster did not really want to go, partly because he had a village meeting at 8am that morning, and partly because he was not going to know anyone there (since it will be a bunch of people I know from work). Once we got there, he said he was actually having more fun than he expected. The ceremony was simply elegant and beautiful. The food at the reception was great, and the bar was open. Some of my coworkers too liberal advantage of that fact! I was a little surprised that I managed to get Buster out on the dance floor during the "couples" dance, but since the brides specifically told us to get out there and dance, it is not like we had much choice. It was a little surprising that we were one of the last couples out there when the DJ started asking people to step off based on how long the couple had been together. I guess 10 1/2 years actually IS a long time. We got home way later than I had expected, but it was a fun evening.
Sunday: was another day of recovering and dreading Monday morning. By this time, I was almost ready to go back to work, mostly because I'll be less busy there!
Man, this ended up being much longer than I had expected. I need to make more frequent updates, or have less going on in my life......
