Saturday

Friday night, I went to another late graduation party after I dropped my grandmothers off at their hotel. The parties have been pretty low key, but I know the people there, I enjoy myself, and its a nice change from when I graduated high school, when the only graduation party I attended or was invited to was my own.

Saturday morning, I picked up my grandmothers and we drove to the Phoenix Art Museum where we joined the hordes of people going to see the Rembrandt and Dutch Painters exhibition. The museum has had a major remodeling since I was last there, and I really liked what they had done with the entry. The exhibit was good, about a dozen Rembrandt's, two or three really great pieces in my opinion. Before we went in, we stopped by the Museum Cafe to grab some lunch.

The cafe is called Arcadia Farms, and the organization is terrible. When you walk in, you are immediately asked how many people in your group, and given a wait time. The problem is that they don't tell you that you only need to wait if you want table service with the restaurant menu. Immediately behind the server, there is a long display case and bar with food and drinks which could be easily mistaken for a buffet. If you order from this deli bar, then you can't sit down inside, but must eat outside. Fortunately grandma Perkins got a sandwich from the main menu, while grandma Case and I got deli sandwiches, so even though we got evil-eyed, we still were not asked to leave.

After the exhibition, I took them by my workplace which was a few doors down from there. They seemed to like it, and took my photo in the lobby beside the company logo. Afterwards, I took them to the airport and dropped them off for their flight back to Oklahoma City. I'm really glad they came.

Later that afternoon, a friend of mine from studio invited me to his graduation party, so I got directions and took off for that. His party was at his mother's housing complex community center way up in northwest Gilbert. Most of his extended family lives in town, so everybody was there, and it really felt like a family reunion with all different ages, and kids running around everywhere. It was a fun party too. Saw my old studio instructor who also once worked where I do, but now has his own firm.

That evening, I went to a last party of graduate students and ran into a bunch of older students I knew from the dorms, so it was good to catch up with them.

Graduation Convocation

Today I had to get up even earlier and bike down to Gammage to get ready for Convocation. They had us arrive at 8, but didn't lead us out until 9, so we mingled in the cramped backstage area. This involves the entire college of design, including everyone from Interiors, to Planning, to Landscape, Design Studies, building administration et al, so it was pretty packed. Saori and her mom spent an hour and a half putting her special kimono on, one that traditionally she is supposed to wear only twice in her life- graduation from college, and then for the photos afterwards. Looked great, but very warm.

Convocation went smoothly, they announced me as "Alex Perkins" when I handed them the card with "Alexander Perkins," but they completely butchered Saori's name, mis-reading it as "Sandy" ah well. We got our degree holders and walked across the stage. Pretty quick ceremony. Finished in less than an hour and a half.

After the ceremony, Sally, Jonathan, and the family took us to Oreganos where we had an early lunch feast. Afterwards, my grandmothers and I lounged by the pool at the hotel, reading, talking, and enjoying the cool water. I was stung by a wasp, which was a little painful. I was concerned I might be allergic to wasp stings since I'd never been stung before, but the swelling and redness disappeared within an hour. Around 5 o'clock, grandma Case made a comment about cocktail hour, so I decided to take them to Four Peaks brewery, where we enjoyed a pitcher of beer. They were excited to have the "complete college experience."

Anyway, photos: click on the Webshots link to see the full sized photos.



Graduation 2007

Commencement

Today I had my degree officially conferred upon me at the ASU convocation, along with about 3200 other graduates who showed up (about half of the total student population graduating). My grandmothers took a shuttle from their hotel to the arena where it took place, and in keeping with my typical M.O., I took the city bus. Luckily a short distance. In honor of my grandparents visiting from Oklahoma, and in deference to the official State Neckwear, I wore a bolo tie which belonged to my grandfather Case. I also rummaged up an old silver bracelet mom gave me when I was about ten. Commencement was good. It was pretty snappy, nobody talked for very long, I'd never heard of the commencement speaker, but apparently he was a key figure in sequencing the human genome. He talked for a short bit about duty. Then they recognized the people who graduated with honors, so I got to stand up when they called for all those with Summa Cum Laude. Then they had all the colleges stand up individually, and after presenting all of us to President Crow, he officially conferred the degrees, and we all cheered. And that was about it. I had a lot of fun watching the various costumed people come in. I recall I went to commencement as a freshman to start college almost as a lark, just to see what it was. Same old robes.

After the ceremony, I met up with Sally and my grandmothers and we took some photos outside. Somewhere in there I lost my regular glasses, so now I'm wearing my temporary ones. Later that afternoon, we went back and my grandmothers hunted around where we were while I idled on the side of the road. I would have parked but unbelievably they seemed to be having ceremonies the entire afternoon so the traffic was terrible.

I took them to Fashion Square in Scottsdale for a bit this afternoon, where we got a bite to eat at the Kona Grill, (and I got grandma Loretta to try a bit of my sushi), and I replaced a battery in my watch. They didn't find anything, but enjoyed looking and getting outraged at the luxury prices of everything.

This evening, a friend of mine had an extra ticket to the college of architecture/landscape party so I was able to bring both my grandparents as dates. It was nice, all the faculty were there, free drinks, some food, really good desserts, all at the Stone House at the Phoenix Zoo. Hung out there for a bit and met Saori's mom who was also in town for the occasion. My grandparents got free bouquets in vases as the party wound down.

Tomorrow is the more intimate ceremony with just the college of design graduates. Should be fun.

Las Abuelas

Monday night I turned in my sketchbook for my sketching class. I had finished 250 pages out of 400, which is at least 50 pages more than most people's books. I was sad to let it go, actually having grown fond of it while I worked on it. I'll get it back in about a month. After we turned it in, Saori and her roommate, me, my roommate all got Italian food to go and we had a picnic in the park by Tempe Town Lake.

Well, I took my last final yesterday afternoon. It took me all of 30 minutes to finish the short, multiple choice test. We'll see how I did. With that, I was done with ASU. No more classes, no more finals, no more submissions, no more paperwork. That evening, Sally picked me up and took me to a very nice celebratory dinner at Z-Tejas, and stuffed me with great food and berry cobbler. Afterwards, I went back to her house and she lent me her extremely nice SUV to shuttle my grandparents around.

My grandmothers flew in this morning from Oklahoma City, and I met them at the airport. They were thrilled to see me and extremely impressed with the car. They were shocked that I had friends who were so generous. I took them to their hotel near campus and waited for them to unpack before we went to a light lunch at Dilly's Deli. I dropped them at the hotel and went back to the college to hear the last two minutes of a meeting for all the graduates concerning the proceedure for friday's convocation ceremony. It was all online anyway.

Interestingly, I ran into my ex-girlfriend Jen in the hall, the first time I've seen her all year. She got a job at Gensler, a place she's always wanted to work, and it will be a great position for her. She'll be taking a year off too after she graduates.

After the meeting, I ran some errands, printed some ceremony stuff out, and finally went back to the hotel to pick up my grandparents. I showed them the apartment and my fat cat, and then we walked along Mill Ave. For dinner, we went to Macayo's and had big margaritas. It was fun, although I wish I had my whole family here.