OMG - Operation Overload!

OK, I know I haven't written in more than a two weeks but, I have so much to post/blog about that I'm going to separate it into multiple blogs. First, I'll write about all the stuff that happened graduation weekend and other Cornell stuff.

So, on Sunday the 24th, I graduated (unofficially) from college! I'll get my diploma in the mail sometime in August after I finish the last class I have to take to satisfy all my requirements. Graduation weekend was, in a word, awesome. The family came up and I spent hardly any time in Ithaca. I know you might find this strange but I'm so sick of the place that I was just itching to have something to do as far as I could reasonably get in one day. Friday, my family helped be move about 80% of my junk out of my room. It took about 5 hours - thank god for air conditioning! I packed up a bag so I could crash with my siblings for the weekend and then we headed out to dinner at the Boatyard Grill. It's my favorite restaurant in Ithaca and usually, the food is fantastic. But, this time, they brought my blue crab stuffed shrimp and they over cooked it to the point of blackening it. So, they ended up remaking it for me and not charging us for it. And since I'm not one to complain about free food, I was a happy camper. We headed back to the hotel where Mom and Dad crashed and Andrew, KR, and I proceeded to stay up until 3 in the morning just talking about stuff and catching up on things.

Thus, we got a very late start on Saturday. But, we went to a local Cortland restaurant called Auntie Anne's (not the pretzel place but something very much like a Denny's) and I had apple cinnamon stuffed french toast. Delish! Then, the fun began... we went miniature golfing. Or as KR would say - put, put. Andrew and Dad totally kicked our girl asses and Andrew ended up winning by 2 strokes. I had the red ball. :-)

For our afternoon fun, we went and saw a movie (I'll go into more detail in my upcoming movie post) and then we headed back to Ithaca to pick up my cap and gown and get some food. We ended up at the Lost Dog Cafe which is another interesting place to eat in Ithaca. We all had really amazing food (Dad - burger, KR - rigatoni ala vodka, Andrew - apple cider pork tenderloin, Mom - some special, Me - whiskey butter filet mignon) and fried cheesecake which was so good!

We then headed back to the hotel in Cortland for a good night sleep before the 9 am start of the processional. Sunday (graduation day) kinda sucked. I helped my parents unload at the stadium and find decent seating by 8:30 and then I walked over to the part of the Arts Quad where the engineers were congragating. Then, at 10 am we all started marching and it took almost two hours to walk the (approximately) eighth of mile to the stadium. Luckily, the engineering seating was right next to the floor seating that my parents were in so my Dad was happily snapping pictures and taking video for the whole commencement speech. President Skorton spoke this year and I'm going paraphrase all the fun things he had to say to us graduates...

"The economy is shit. Less than 20% of college graduates in 2009 graduated with jobs and most of those are volunteer jobs. So, unless you want to go join the peacecorps or work for a non-profit organization, you're fucked. Maybe, someday, things will get better. Have a nice life." - President Skorton

Really? I'm so glad that I sat for 4 hours in a fugly black gown and paraded around with a silly hat on so that you could make me feel depressed about ever possibly being employed.

So, after the ceremony was over, I walked over to my parents (who were equally bummed out) and they suggested we bolt out of there and go see another movie. So, after returning the cap and gown, we headed off to the movies for an afternoon of fun followed up by the deliciousness of A&W Rootbeer.

Mom and Dad treated me to Dunkin Donuts before them and the sibs headed back to civilization. All in all, graduation was a rather painful experience and the only good thing about it was that I spent to much time with my family and so little of it in Ithaca. I'm just so relieved that it's over.