<p>Yes, it was a wonderful weekend. The amphitheater is a beautiful setting, but I wish we didn’t need to get there at 8:30am and spend 4 hours sitting on hard plastic chairs.
George Lakey’s speech was quite moving - it was unfortunate that it started raining halfway through because watching them scramble to hand out ponchos & the audience opening umbrellas was distracting.
Fortunately, the weather cleared up later in the day so the fireworks could go off as planned.
Younger son is a jazz musician and wasn’t thrilled with the arrangements for the recessional music…but when we passed the band on the way out of the amphitheater and saw that they were “mature” men, we knew that the difference of opinion had to do with the difference in ages.
S was almost the only grad without a rose. Sleeping as late as possible was more important to him than getting a flower for his gown. When he woke up, 2 friends were outside his room fully dressed with their roses pinned to their gowns. He still hadn’t gotten into the shower. He got to the rose garden after the scheduled time, but they were still pinning the last few on students, so he was able to get one. I was pleasantly surprised to see he had one during the processional.<br>
Re:Phi Beta Kappa, you’re probably right. S had a 3.7, but didn’t get PKB. </p>
<p>The things that were most memorable to me about the weekend were: waiting excitedly to catch the first glimpse of S during the processional, hearing his name and watching him cross the stage as he got his diploma, attending his major’s dinner at a prof’s house (very nice university housing) and getting to meet and talk with his classmates, their parents, and his profs, hearing the comments his minor prof had to make about him when we attended their department reception, hearing S say repeatedly throughtout the weekend how he couldn’t believe that he was graduating, feeling heartbroken for him at how hard it was to leave his friends who are scattering throughout the country and the world, and, probably most unbelievably, that DH was able to pack all of S’s stuff into the SUV and still leave room for the 4 of us to sit.</p>
<p>Congrats to the class of 2008 and their parents.</p>