amanda and i went down to pittsburgh this weekend for her sister susan’s graduation from cmu. her parents, grandmothers, and some friends from ohio were also there. we all stayed at a holiday inn between the airport and downtown.
the dc gaelic athletic association also seemed to be staying at the hotel, presumably for some football event. they were quite friendly and jolly, and even let us in front of them in line for checkin since there were gobs of them. some of them were situated beside amanda’s parents room, and apparently their chants and singing and carrying on kept her up. tim probably would have gotten along fabulously with them.
i guess susan had been partaking of various graduation activities the week before, but she was up for more when we arrived. we arrived too late for dinner on saturday night, but then went out to a restaurant/bar downtown and met up with a few our her fellow graduates. it was a fun evening of drink and talk, but unfortunately, all of us had to get up early for graduation.
the graduation was as one might expect. it was pretty cold out in the stadium where they had the main ceremony, but at least it did not rain (tho it threatened). all the speakers were quite lauding, fawning, and self-congratdulatory to themselves and the graduates, and, as usual, spoke waaaay too long.
the student speaker’s remarks would not have been out of place in a high school graduation with its comments on growing up, home, dreams, family, taking the next step, yadda yadda yadda. i suppose i consider undergraduates adults (they are usually over 18 after all) rather than simply high school students sans parental supervision, so all the introspective prattle about the youth, growing up, narcissistic selfcongradulations, and the minutae of student life was rather tedious and patronizing. well, it would’ve been patronizing had it been directed to me as a graduating senior.
i had this weird thought that the speeches were all about mutual pyschological masturbation/oral sex between speaker and graduate/associated family member. then, again, i am a weird guy.
of course, it was a graduation ceremony, and they are really all about pomp and circumstance and whatnot, so really the content of all the speeches was not that surprising. selflove and selfesteem boosting and ra-ra-ra-ness are to be expected.
the keynote speaker, teresa heinz, in constrast, had a very good speech. of course, the content of which i have totally forgotten since i had lost too many brain cells. anyway, it was much more appropriate for a large, educated audience and was delivered with the proper seriousness.
the department ceremonies (at least susan’s… i imagine the rest were similar) were much more enjoyable than the main one. all the commendations were much more personal and directed to actual people in the audience, and all graduates and other award recepients were properly lauded and recognized.
carnegie mellon gave all their diplomas in a nice embossed folder thingy which was very nice. they even got a free wallet sized diploma (the utility of which i do not know). i seem to remember mine coming in a big manila envelope. everyone also had they picture taken with the presenters by some department employee (there was a handy “x” on the ground where people had to stand).
susan also got a bonus book as a gift… the “physic of music” or somesuch.
we had dinner afterwards at the church brew works. it is a restaurant/brew pub located in a old church; i thought the atmosphere was quite nice. tho they were playing some weird spanish party music while we were there; it didn’t seem quite appropriate for the surroundings. the menu actually indicated which items were vegetarian which was very thoughtful. the dinner itself was good… i had a smooked gouda quesadilla appetizer and a pesto/sun dried tomato/artichoke pasta dish with one of their beers. the service was good also (if a bit slow). if i was around pittsburgh and came to this place, i would probably eat off the bar menu normally though; the dinner main entree menu seemed non-inspiring to me, tho meat eaters may disagree.
it was also amanda and susan’s mother’s 50th birthday. woohoo. huzzah. she received various items and a chocolaty dessert with birthday candle.
we left pittsburgh early monday morning (today), since amanda needed to study and i wanted to work a half day. the drive itself was tedious as usual (something about driving through the southern tier is just mind numbing), but we did discover driving through hammondsport instead of taking 17 all the way to corning or elmira is the way to go… its much much faster and more interesting.