I Survived Graduation

I made it. I survived. The hours were not quite as grueling as they had told me -- I worked roughly 10 hours Saturday and Sunday. Saturday I waved traffic by at a stop sign. Sunday I worked the shuttle line, keeping order, answering questions, got yelled at. A lot. The highlight of the weekend was this:
Recognize him from Mythbusters? Yep, it's Adam Savage. He was the keynote speaker for the Engineering and Sciences ceremony on Saturday. Here's how it went down: It is Saturday and the staff are finishing up lunch in this empty theater backstage where they have food setup for us. This is also the area where they dress the chancellor and processional muckety-mucks who sit on stage during the ceremony. So the Science and Engineering group leaves to begin the ceremony and I hear some people nearby at my lunch table talking about Mythbusters. I chime in about how that is my son's absolute favorite show and that's when someone mentions that I just ate lunch oblivious to the fact that the star of Mythbusters was right behind me, that he is the commencement speaker! So I run out to the ceremony just in time to hear him give this great, charming, funny, down-to-earth address to the crowd advising the kids not to get too specialized, not to take themselves too seriously and not to be afraid to start over. It was a warm, folksy talk and worlds better than one of the other speakers who was clearly reading a speech that was so dry you could hear a collectively stifled yawn throughout the first half of her speech and barely hear her over the chatter of the second half due to the bad manners of the audience who, like unruly children, could not even keep still for 15 minutes. After Adam finished his speech, I waited breathlessly with my program for him to return to the staging area and fawned over him like a fifteen-year-old telling him what fans we were of the show and could I get him to sign the program for my son? He was very congenial and signed the program "To Kai: Keep Coooooooool. A S---------g ( that's sort of what the signature looked like). I was so excited I could hardly stand it. Getting stuff like that for your kid is even better than getting it for yourself. That is the first ever autograph I have ever obtained.

The best part was calling my son (who, due only to the fact that his parent's are no longer married to each other, has his own cellphone). It went like this:
Kai: Hello?
Me: Kai, it's me, Mom.
Kai: (Whispering) I'm in the movies, I can't talk.
Me: OK. It's just that I wanted to let you know Adam Savage is here.
Kai: (Whispering really loudly and I could just see him sitting straight up) What?!! No Way! Could you get me his autograph? Please?
Me: Of course.

The rest is history.

I took today off, but I have a sore throat and a bad headache and aches. Maybe my body is just really tired. It was pretty intense. 6 graduaion ceremonies. Probably about 2500 graduates, all told. And lots and lots of people. Everywhere. It's like a rock concert, only with multiple shows. As one group is trying to leave, the next is coming in. Lots of traffic, shuttle busses, maps, port-a-potties. But we made it. I did in fact bring knitting, but not much got done. I finished a hat in the break area between ceremonies and started another. Susan, I did not bring the sea silk because that shawl pattern at this point takes too much concentration. I'm kind of at a funny place with my knitting right now. Lots of starts but no real projects. I think it is a good time to finish up some odds and ends. I have started the Storm Water shawl 4 or 5 times now and either mess it up and need to start over or am not happy with the tension. I need to move down at least a needle size. Size 6 metals were way too slippery. I'm thinking me, ms. loosy goosy needs bamboo size 4 because the 5s aren't cutting it. I love the look of this yarn, but more and more I am discovering silk is not my favorite, and I am not a fan of the SSP. Not even sure if I'm doing it right and the yos next to it are disproportionately huge. I really am a wool-alpaca kind of gal. It's more forgiving. Like me. Heh.

I may take another day. I'm still exhausted and I barely did anything today.