Graduation Memories pt. Deux

So I think I wrapped up Wednesday last night. Onwards...

Thursday:
Thursday morning was Coop's bad morning. We recounted the night's events, and he wasn't feelin so well. We went up to Caroline's to get breakfast and relax, though once we got there, Coop wasn't feeling too much like eating so he passed out while we made food. Then we went for a swim, which he arose for and I think it felt good for a ll of us. Thursday ended up getting to 105 degrees out, so having some water to cool off in was amazing. Coop and I went back to Stanford and packed/hung out in my room for a bit, moving slowly due to the oppressive heat. I ran some errands and tried to find Craig, who via phone ended up telling me to meet him at the treehouse at 5:15. I went there, waited for a while, and he eventually showed up with Roger, Yaz's husband, and we shared a couple pitchers of Fat Tire. It was fun, he was talking a million miles a minute as always. He had to run at 6 so I went back to KA and got ready for Senior Dinner on the Quad. Various guys were debating what the necessary attire was and I opted for shorts and a buttondown, which turned out fine. We headed down there with a couple beers for the road, and showed up to a nicely set up Quad with lots of people mingling and enjoying the open bar. I saw some old friends/acquaintances, said hello and caught up, etc. Eventually we moved to the dining area, where we had some good fish and salad and I proceeded to get a bit too drunk on the wine that seemed to endlessly fill my glass(es). Long story short, I made somewhat of a fool of myself and was assisted in making the decision that it would be a good time for me to leave. As I left, apparently a large picture of me came up on the giant slideshow. How ironic. I made it home almost in one piece and proceeded to get sick and inconvenience my friends and Caroline's friends... oops.

Friday:
I woke up the next morning feeling atrocious and lacking a good recollection of the night, only to receive a call from the Housing people, who were in our kitchen and letting me know that, while our kitchen was a disaster, it was supposed to have been completely cleaned and closed up by 8 that morning. So, in a painful state, I rallied people from the house and we narrowly avoided getting hammered by the housing office. When that was finally done, I went upstairs and took a nap. Throughout all this, Coop was watching YouTube videos of boat disasters, rally cars, and Land Rovers. And by "throughout all of this," I mean he probably watched about 8 hours of YouTube that day. We got Jamba juice in the middle, which was somewhat refreshing, and after the nap and an erg workout I started to feel like a real human again. Around 7 the family got in and we all went out to Chevy's. That was a great time, it was awesome to have the whole family together. After that I went to stay at Caroline's while they went to the Sofitel, to reconvene the next day to really take care of packing.

Saturday:
This might as well be known as packingday, with a few events interspersed. By the end, we had packed up 11 normal boxes, a bike box, and 2 tupperware containers full of my life. It was awesome to have so many hands helping because I could sort my stuff out and say "can this go in a box?" and it would happen. We ended up skipping class day and the President's reception, neither of which I missed too much. We went to the senior lunch on the grove by the rugby field, which was fun and broke up the day. We returned to packing and got it all done with a few trips to the UPS store. My room was totally cleared out, which was a huge relief. We went to the Sofitel for some much needed relaxation before dinner. I got some awesome, extremely thoughtful gifts from the family which was really nice. Caroline showed up and hung out for a little bit while we all got ready to head out to Mandarin Gourmet, which was an absolutely fabulous dinner. Being with everyone was great, and the food was, as always, intensely delicious. We went back to the Sofitel for a bit after that but everyone got the sleepies pretty quickly so we all conked out, ready for a big morning of graduation the next day.

Sunday:
I got up early to go meet with guys at KA to try and figure out Wacky Walk. "Where's Waldo?" had been decided upon as a theme, although with short notice and other things going on, the costumes ended up mostly being put-on-crazy-shit-and-go, which was just as good. Graham as Waldo, and as he was the last to show up, we got a lot of mileage out of the "No, seriously, where's Waldo?" joke. We waited around for a while and got pictures taken and all that, then headed down to the field where the wacky walk was... well, more disorganized than I'd foreseen, which was probably better, as we had no organization either. More mingling occured around the field, and then eventually we went to sit down for the ceremony. The commencement was pretty nice, less painful than I usually assume large ceremonies to be. The speakers didn't talk for too long, there wasn't too much superfluous stuff, and we were done with it in what seemed like just about the right amount of time. More mingling on the field then, then some mingling outside the stadium, where we waited for Donny (which proved to be in vain and silly because he wasn't even there...) for a bit, hung out with Kreek, and then parted ways with our respective families to go to the departmental ceremonies. There, we found good food and a pretty relaxed atmosphere. The various art departments gave their degrees and awards, which was fun and, again, mercifully not drawn out. I got tons of butterflies as I actually went up to get my diploma, and had a fairly silly grin as I carried it and looked at it. Pretty weird to actually have a college degree, but it's alright with me. Pretty proud of it, actually. After everything wrapped up and a sufficient number of pictures were taken (in AND out of the shade, mind you!), we moved on up to KA, where Don, Barbara, and Coop left to go Visallia (sp?) to go hike and visit the river for Pete. It was a bummer to see them go but I knew they had to go do more things. Caroline and Julia and I went up to her house to hang out for a bit, then Mom and I ran down to the Stanford Shopping Center and looked around for a bit and went to the Creamery for a fun dinner. It was really fun to just have some mellow time with her. Afer that, I took her to Gail and Ray's and I returned to the Crandall abode. Hung out with Caroline, Jess, and Emily for a bit and then passed out. The next day I knew would be tough... KA cleaning day.

Monday:
I got up early at Caroline's to go to KA and try and get all the cleaning done to get it closed by the 2pm deadline. I got there a little before 8, and ended up working almost until 3. It was sucky. Slowly people joined in on the cleaning crew, including KBaum's brother and Dierdre, and we cleaned the shithole of a house. People had left a lot of gross shit, and some of the job was pretty gross. Mostly, we just threw out tons of stuff and put lots of beds together, and then attended to the little things like organizing storage and cleaning the laundry room. I won't elaborate more because it's boring, but it was a shitty day. Around noon I had a little bit of a break and went to get my mom and we grabbed some food, then went back to finish it all up. I got almost all of the keys accounted for and after a bit was so tired of the house that I figured it was pretty much clean enough, so I went, turned the keys in, and decided my time at Stanford was done. We went and got me some new sandals, then finally, after hours of thinking we were almost ready to be there, got to Caroline's and collapsed. We went for a swim, made dinner, and just mellowed out until I had to head to the airport at a little before 9. Caroline took both my mom and me, as my mom was getting picked up by a friend at the airport. A sad goodbye to my two favorite girls, but we had an amazing weekend. I got through the lines in ok time, got to the gate, and took my ambien in preparation to pass out, which I did as soon as I got on the plane.

Tuesday:
It's weird to get on a plane at night and get off in the morning. Very weird. I found where to wait for the Dartmouth coach, it came, I got on and had to buy my ticket again about 15 minutes into the ride. Maybe still due to the ambien, I was so tired I couldn't really keep my eyes straight, but I got my ticket and passed out on the bus. Got to Hanover, walked to the Nelson's, and passed out. Woke up and heard we had 5:30 practice, went, rowed (which was weird... the previous 6 days was the longest stretch I'd had out of a boat in over 6 months), then came home to a nice barbecue and watching DVDs of the West Wing with everyone. That was nice, then wrote last night and passed out.

There, I think we're caught up. Today I missed a lunch with Tavio's friend Trey, which was dumb because I just spaced and got there a bit late and just missed him. Ended up getting a sandwich in town and now I'm here, anxiously awaiting the 2k. I ran into Spencer, another rower, who said it's not too bad an not to stress it, which is the feeling I'm getting. I'll just do what I can, try to lay down a solid piece, and be done with it. Murph and Osborne pulled good pieces (6:06 and 5:59 [baller] respectively), Silas will go just after me, and other than a couple really fast scores I haven't heard anything that makes me too scared. No Ben Harrisons or Alex Hearnes, which is relieving. Anyways, I don't think it's going to make or break me. Onwards, and if you read this whole thing, I'm sorry. It's damn long, I hope you didn't have better things to do.