Graduation!

Well, I trying to play catch-up after an exhausting couple of weeks. Graduation was June 6th, exactly two weeks ago. It seems like ages ago because so much has happened. So for this post, I'll try to keep it to graduation week and not confuse stuff with subsequent events.

Graduation week was a bit chaotic. I had my mom and Becky's mom arrive on Wednesday in the midst of packing. They joined in the tornado and packed everything in sight. My mom became the shrink-wrap champion. Three thousand feet of shrink-wrap is enough to encase almost every item in a household!

Wednesday night Becky and I went to a small get together with some of my classmates at school. It was a fun night for graduates and spouses put on by Jill. She even had personalized presents for each of us based on medical school notoriety and where we were heading.

Thursday, June 5, we spent the day making final preparations for graduation and the move. In the evening we left the boys at home while mom, Marge, Becky and I went to the graduation banquet. It was a big event with almost the entire class and faculty, plus families. We sat with Tucker and his family near the front.

After all the formal presentations and awards Tucker did a great job giving the class President's speech and then introducing the video presentation he and the class officers put together. In between all the he received five or six awards for his outstanding performance and everything he's done for the class. (It really was the Tucker show.) I even received and academic award, Sigma Sigma Phi. Dinner was ok, but the video was definitely the highlight of the evening for most of us. I hope I can snag a copy from Tucker at some point. While we were there, Dad and Susan flew while we were at dinner to take the kids to dinner.

On Friday we had to get going so I could get to graduation by 9am. It didn't actually start until 10am so we had plenty of time to socialize with classmates I wouldn't be seeing again for a long time, and probably never again as one group. It was cool to see everyone dressed up and in gowns.

AZCOM went first, so there were a few short speeches by faculty before we lined up for hooding and diplomas. Our favorite faculty members (6) were up on stage to help hood. Drs. Walter and Middleton helped me when I got to the stage. Then I was introduced walked to Dr. G. where I got a photo taken as she handed me a fake diploma. Once everyone went through the line, we turned our tassels together and got to enjoy a short applause. The colleges of Pharmacy and Biosciences then had to have there own processions and hooding ceremonies. Luckily the whole thing only took about two hours.

Afterwords, the family a lot of pictures together on stage and in front of the building. Several of us took a bunch of pictures with an inflatable version of one of our classmates who couldn't make graduation. It was poignant to have a dozen or so of us on stage with a gowned and hooded doll saying "we wish you were here Dave".

It then took well over an hour to fight traffic out of the place to get to lunch with the family. It was a good time and very relaxing after all the commotion. The afternoon gave us time for naps and a change of clothes into casual attire. Becky had made reservations for all of us at "the best" seafood restaurant in Phoenix, the Salt Cellar. It was great food, but I can't vouch for the best. My fish was great, the boys had a fresh Dungeness crab and Beck had some outstanding shrimp. It was great to spent some time with the family.

I also enjoyed my Dad's comments about how proud he was of me and how proud my grandfather and grandmother would have been had they been alive. That was right up there with Becky mentioning how my mom teared at the ariport when she dropped her off on Sunday. My mom said shehad been able to keep it together until, but she was so rpoud it got her all emotional.

Saturday morning Becky took Marge, my dad and Susan to the airport while we started staging boxes and furniture in the garage. My mom continued her marathon shrink-wrapping.

Sunday Becky, the boys, a neighbor and I loaded the semi container with our household goods. It took over six hours of exhausting work. We even needed the truck driven at one point when we got our heaviest couch stuck in the stairway coming down from the second floor. We were all wiped out, but I felt we did a great packing job and no one got hurt.

While Becky was dropping my mom off at the airport, I drove the Accord on to the back of the truck and helped to strap it down.

So began our six day adventure across the country with a campout in our empty house, save sleeping bags, two boys, two dogs and heavily laden mini-van.