More about my grad...

Ready to take over-um I mean take on-the world...lol

As it says in my title this post is MORE about my grad. Here's the lowdown:
So I woke up early-of course-on Monday to get ready for my grad. I had not had a lot of sleep since I had also had a long weekend. Friday I drove to NH and then that night at 10:00 my brothers and I drove from NH to Worcester MA to watch the new Chronicles of Narnia movie at 11:20pm. My brothers all work at different times and this was the only time we could all go together. And we ended up making it on time! So we got back to NH at around 3:00 am. The next day I went to a tea at my mom's church, and then we drove to Keene to shop around a bit. Then Sunday, I woke up and did some laundry, then drove back to Boston to go to my roommate Diane's grad dinner in Chinatown. It was some good food too! Yummy.

Anyway. So by Monday I was exhausted but I still woke up in time of course and proceded to get ready. I decided to wear my black and white dress-and just hoped the weather would be obliging. Finally I left my apartment around 7:45am. I headed to BC via my usual route-taking the bus up to the BC shuttle. However, it was after a while of standing at the shuttle stop I realized that it was not coming. Luckily, while I was there I met some other grad A&S graduates who were heading there as well. This was important because we were all heading to the same place-all the graduates had to meet in different parts of the school before the procession. And since we were late I figured, well at least they're late too. lol. I actually ended up bumping into these girls a couple times during the day-which was cool, and they were really nice.

Then, finally the University wide ceremony commenced. I already blogged about that a bit. One thing I will add is that it was nice because I actually ended up locating my parents in the stands. During my undergrad ceremony I found my friends, but never found them so I never knew where they were. So that was cool. And my mom even took a pic of me from really far away waving at her. lol.

Can you see me? Waving to my parents...

So after that ceremony I had a half hour to make it over to the Robsham for my individual school ceremony. This of course was a real feat because Alumni Stadium was packed. Then I get there and called my brothers, who of course were lost somewhere in Boston. While I'm on the phone a guy tells me that the ceremony is starting in a minute. Ok great, so I couldnt be of much help. I figured they wouldnt even make it.

Luckily the ceremony was two hours long, with the usual talks and conferring of Ph.D.s at the beginning (which took forever).

Then, it was like all of a sudden the listing of the degree recipients was really starting. I went toward the beginning-and it seemed like all of the rest went by pretty quickly after that.

After the ceremony I was starving and really thirsty so I went out and got some food. This ceremony had refreshments at it. I also went and picked up my diploma-which they had ready for us. I have to say even up to that moment I kept thinking something would go wrong. But it didnt! I got my diploma and its big and beautiful and has my name on it! When I saw Spike Lee at BC he said something funny and that was that he graduated Thank You Lawdy-and I totally feel the same way! I know I couldnt have done it at all without God.

Me and my brothers and my diploma!
Me and my mom and Stephen-and my hood! I love my hood.

Right after I turned in my gown and hat (hat hair). Got to keep my hood and tassle though :)

Continuing on...My brothers (who had made it after all-yay!) were complaining about wanting to leave soon so I was like ok lets take some pictures then we'll go. And of course, they did not want to stick around and wait to get directions to the restaurant we were going to- so Matthew and Stephen left without really knowing where they were going.

Then my mom and my brother and I had a time looking for my parents' car. My dad had to leave my ceremony early because it was standing room only by the time they got there and my dad can't stand for that long-so he was already in the car laying down.

About half hour later we got to the car and started on our way. My little brothers had already been driving around for a time now, since they had left earlier. Of course, I got a call saying they were lost. Unfortunately, while on the phone with them my battery died! And my mom's cell phone was out of minutes so she couldnt call them either! This was really wierd indeed since they had 97 minutes on it and hadnt really talked more than about 15 minutes during my ceremony. Wierd.

So of course we were all worried about them being lost in Boston (hey that rhymes), and so I told my parents I knew where a Shaws was so they could buy a new card for their cell phone. We get to Shaw's, purchase the card, attempt to put minutes on the phone, but OH its not working! After sitting in the parking lot for a while we finally went inside where this really nice guy helped us by calling the company and straightening it out.

So we finally get ahold of my brothers who were worried about us-thinking something had happened to us-and we were worried about them! So I give them directions, except Matt is all the way on the other side of Comm. Ave-really far from where the exit for 95 is-the exit they need to take to get to the restaurant.

So my dad mom and brother and I end up driving to the restaurant-which was pretty easy to find actually. I forced my family to go to the Rainforest Cafe in Burlington-my fave restaurant of course!

The Rainforest Cafe is at the mall in Burlington-so while we were waiting for my brothers to arrive my dad went inside the mall to buy me a charger-which of course wasn't the right one-lol. And since by now it was about 5-6:00 I was STARVING cause I hadnt eaten hardly anything all day but mostly I was tired and had a headache-since I had hardly any caffeine all day either. So I decided to go into the mall to procure a soda.

As Im entering the mall I see this Christmas display in front of me-and it was literally like my brain went bzzzt and shorted out cause I was thinking wait-what month is it? lol. Then I was like oh yeah its May. Then I was like NO they CANT be doing Christmas in the Spring! But then I saw a sign that explained everything-a movie was being filmed there. It said on the sign it was a HappyMadison film so Im pretty sure that its an Adam Sandler movie and its starring Kevin James. So random-to film a movie in Burlington of all places.

The sign telling me-no you're not crazy-they are just filming a movie here.

Right after taking this pic a mall cop told us we weren't allowed to take pics in the mall. WHAT???

The funny thing is, the movie being filmed is about a mall cop-called appropriately- Mall Cop. lol...looks funny. cant wait!

Anyway, so I ended up going to Dunkin Donuts and getting some delicious coffee-nothing compares-and then headed back to the car. My brothers followed soon after.

So, being all together FINALLY we headed into the restaurant where they told us it would only be a ten minute wait. Sweet! However this ten minutes became twenty pretty fast. And we were all STARVING!! We got to play around though in the mean time-and we took a bunch of pics.

Finally we were seated, and ordered. It was funny because my brother Frankie was like ok what happens now is there a show or something? lol. I was like no its just the experience of eating in the Rainforest. Lol. Im not sure they liked it that much, they said it was over the top. I dont think its over the top-I think its fun! But everyone said the food was really good. And Frankie said it was the best burger he had eaten in a long time. So thats nice.

Us in the restaurant-ready to eat!

I made it home to my apartment around 9-10 that night-and I was exhausted! I slept most of the next day and was STILL exhausted! I think it was just coming down from this entire past week where I stayed up all night completing work on two occasions-and then of course there was my weekend. Plus my allergies are really bothering me too. And those make me really tired all the time.

Anyway, it was a loong and crazy day but worth it. Theses aren't all of my pics, but I might post more later. So keep checking back.

Graduation!!!!

I GRADUATED!!!!! YAYY!! Im so excited.

Im going to be posting about my day in a couple of separate posts since, it was SUCH a long day-and also my mom took most of the pics from the day so I have to wait to get pics from her.


First off, was the University wide ceremony-which I really only went to because I wanted to see David McCullough speak. I heart David McCullough!


It was at the University ceremony that I learned about all the conventions governing attire. Master's candidates, when they graduate, wear hoods-and since my degree is in the arts my hood is white. While we were waiting in line they told us further, that we had to wear our hoods over our left hand while walking into the ceremony. After the president confirms the degrees, we get to put them on then.


Then there are all of the Ph.D. hoods. They are so cool! Not to mention their robes-the Ph.D. robes are beautiful! It was cool watching all the faculty walking in with all of their differently colored robes and hoods. If I remember correctly, the hoods are colored as follows: white for arts and sciences, purple for law, blue for education, -and I cant remember what management/business are.


Then there was David McCullough. It was awesome getting to see him! And the cool thing was the A&S students got to sit in front, and the grad A&S students in the very front-so I was like in the third row! I had a great view of David and his speech. He gave a really good speech about the availability of information in the world, and the difference between mere information and learning, and education.


There was also a really good talk by I think it was the President of the school, about how blessed and fortunate we are, and our responsibility to use those blessings to give back. I thought it was great-and it was great to be in a ceremony that invoked God and prayer.


Here are some pics of David-enjoy. There will be more about my day later...and my individual school ceremony to come. :)

David walked right by me!
Speaking
About to get hooded
He's hooded! -Awarded an honorary Ph.D from BC

North Shore

This past weekend my roommates and I went to the North Shore. Here are some of the pics we took, although they are out of order since I cant figure out how to move photos on this post. :(

Great view of my truck :) Oh yeah there's some scenery out there too.

Right Oh guvnah!
Looking around in an antique shop.

We went to this bread shop in Danvers

Eating in Essex. Diane, me Amanda
Amanda had never tried clams before
she looks nervous
bunch o'clams
Woodman's-where we ate.

We also went to Salem, where we went by Nathaniel Hawthorne's House of Seven Gables. My only question: what is a gable anyway? I dont know, we didnt take the tour we just took pics outside lol...
We even saw a black cat in Salem! lol...no "bad luck," either...
We went to so many places Im not even sure which city this was in. I think it was Rockport though...?

Once again...possibly Rockport.

Interesting lighthouse in Marblehead
Don't remember where this lighthouse was, lol.
This lighthouse was in Salem. I'm sure of it.
Notice the gloves, scarf, winter coat and umbrella in MAY!!! I'm still not used to this...
The Friendship of Salem

Apart from the weather it was an eventful day and we got to see a lot of places. I even got us home in one piece! yay...

As the new year comes up (starting in September) we all three of us are moving on to different places. Well, two are staying in Boston two are headed to Calyforn aye ay! :) I've been blessed these two years with a great apartment and good roommates. Amanda was remarking how she was sad to move because she's had it so good. And it's true. God really has blessed my living situation in Boston, and trust me, I've heard some horror stories. So yay for that. I know He will continue to do the same.

Thank you Lord for your blessing in my situation here in Boston. Help me not to take your blessings for granted. Help me to make the most of the rest of my time here, for as long as it is your will to have me here.

Syrup, shoes, chupacabras and nessy

I've been pretty busy lately and well, completely unmotivated to post anything lately but I was a little bored so I thought what the heck.

A couple of weekends ago I had a three day weekend because of Patriots Day/Marathon Monday so I went home. A little background: I found out recently that my dad has gotten into making his own syrup. Its pretty cool actually-you just tap the maple trees and put a bucket under them and the sap comes right out (the temperature has to be right though). Then you boil off the water and badaboom! syrup! I never even knew we had Maple trees in my parents' backyard-or that syrup is so easy to make. My dad's pastor came over recently though and showed my dad which trees to tap. So anyway, that weekend for the first time ever I tasted real maple syrup! I had never tasted it before! Its really good, but expensive. And they make tons of stuff out of it because its actual, natural sugar.

So anyway, on Saturday my dad took me and my mom to this place in Mason NH called Parkers Maple Barn. They make huge breakfasts and give you real maple syrup. It was really good. It was kind of like the Cracker Barrel only more authentic. I'm including some pics of it here. Then my parents and I went to Nashua to go shopping and I bought the cutest red heels ever. I also bought some cute clothes which is always fun.

That night my little brother Matthew and his girlfriend Devynn kidnapped my older brother Frankie and I and didn't tell us where we were going. Then, while in the car he alerted us that we were going to Nashua! Again! lol. He told us we were headed to the Texas Road House, a restaurant in Nashua. It was funny because while I was in Nashua earlier that day I saw the Road House and when I did I said to myself, I said, self, "I wonder if thats like the Road House in Chico where you throw the peanuts on the ground?" And it was! Self was right! I didnt even know it was a chain. So anyway we went there and steaks, and general merriment were had by all-until we got into a heated argument in front of all of the waitresses cleaning up for the night (it was closing time, and I'm sure we were the last people they wanted to hear. We gave a big tip though! :) ) The ride home did improve, however, and we were even able to catch a glimpse of a UFO. Or, at least, that was what Matthew insisted it was. (clearly just a plane) This, of course led to a discussion of high tech reconnaissance aircraft, Big Foot, Chupacabras, and Nessy.