it is cornell’s commencement day today, so ithaca is packed with people, the hotels and whatnot are all full, and there is no way one can eat out unless one has made reservations way in advance.
actually, that’s not really true, as amanda and i ate out at coyote loco. we were on our way home to cook dinner, but decided to drop in since amanda was hungry and needed a relaxing dinner after many days of constant studying for the medical boards. we ate dinner early, and since they were putting together some larger tables, i imagine it got much busier later.
one of my coworkers alan was at coyote loco as well with his family. his eldest child (who is pretty young) accidently told the waiter he was done with his food, but then was surprised when the waiter took it away. alan said, “well, there isn’t anything i can do about it now.” i think they bribed him with starburst, because i heard alan say a bit later “crisis averted.”
karen, carlos, and his family ate at willow, a more upscale place, and he had to actually sign a contract to get reservations yesterday. i do not know when he made the reservations, but i imagine that it must have been much earlier this year. the rose inn, where amanda and i are having our reception, apparently are filled up for commencement weekend a whopping fours years in advance.
i don’t remember where we ate during my graduation years ago, but i know i didn’t make reservations for it.
it had been rainy for the past few days (or weeks it seems like), but someone at cornell has appeased the dark powers and behold! it was very sunny today. it was rainy and very cold during my graduation, and they still had the main one outside in the stadium. i remember the then president (frank h. t. rhodes) saying that he “had always attributed the great weather on commencement day to the strong moral fiber of the graduating class, and frankly class of 1992, i am very concerned.”
in the past when i was much less financially stable (translation: no money, no real job, but lots of ivy league loans), i used to go around the various department receptions and fill up on all the various foodstuffs. i don’t think that amanda and i will be doing that today tho. it’s another day of studying for amanda and working for me. no long weekend for us!
it’s karen’s 24th birthday today, and we got her a tea kettle and cups from ten thousand villages on the commons.