Graduation Report

The trip started inauspiciously with a recorded phone call at 5AM Friday from United saying our flight had been cancelled. They switched us to a USAir flight through Philadelphia, and we arrived close to the originally scheduled time. We found Tori near baggage claim. Garrett was not pleased when she told him he looked like a Steve clone. We spent that night in the Super8 in Hartford. Garrett was upset in the morning to find that we had missed a father-son bonding experience because we didn't realize Erotic World was right next door until we were ready to hit the road for New Haven.

Graduation itself was a twisty maze of ceremonies and celebrations. We packed up and mailed eight or so boxes on Saturday, some to home and some to Paige. AJ arrived on Saturday and joined us for a nice dinner. He and Garrett stayed in 4th floor dorm rooms on Old Campus. The rooms were really nice, overlooking the quad of Old Campus on one side and the New Haven Green on the other. Rob arrived late that night and opted to share a room with Tori at the Marriott with us. Next morning, Dara and AJ got coffee at one place so they had something to tide them over while they waited in line at Starbucks.

Sunday morning was the Baccalaureate ceremony at the impressive Woolsey Hall. This was a bit of a bookend to the Freshman Convocation ceremony four years before in the same facility -- as Kyla reminded me, the first time I heard her class shout out at the top of their lungs: Oh Six!!! A little praying and speechifying, followed by a few pictures. Dara and her siblings channeled for their mother by mapping out the optimum way to get lunch while reserving the critical seating locations for the Class Day celebration on Old Campus. AJ brought flowers for Kyla, and she shared the roses with her roommates.

Funny hats were de rigeur at Class Day. Kyla wore her cowboy hat with a fully tacked Yale polo pony on top specially decorated by Dara. Class Day included a talk by Anderson Cooper (Class of 89) which was quite funny and enjoyed by all. Toward the end of his talk it started raining, and as the various presentations went on it worked itself up to a proper downpour. Rob and Tori sprinted for the Jumbotron simulcast in the nearby Battelle Chapel. Every event was broadcast on the giant screens on Old Campus (and apparently on the local cable channel). The rest of us hightailed it up the four flights of stairs to the dorm room and watched from there. At the end of the ceremony the grads waved their white hankerchiefs and sang a song ending in "for God, for country, and for Yale." Gad, it just doesn't get much more Ivy Leaguey than that, especially when you get to follow it up with tea at the Master's house.

Of course, the clouds parted when Class Day was over. We had set up dinner at Mory's, and it was really terrific. We had a private room in the library, surrounded by law books from the turn of the century. The meal was great, but the highlight was ordering a "purple cup." Cups at Mory's are the traditional thing to do there, and they come in different flavors or colors. (Kyla wanted the purple one because it would mean she had had every kind, except the non-alcoholic one!) We learned the rules, which include not being allowed to set the cup down (or you would have to drink it all, and believe me, this is not something you would want to do) and being required to turn it 180 degrees as you pass it between people. Garrett was scandalized that his parents "made him" drink also.

When you're down to the last bit, someone opts to finish it off. Since Kyla had never done that duty, she obliged us. Dara tried to keep it from dribbling on her shirt as Kyla drank it down, licked the rim thoroughly, and then spun the cup on her head. While that was happening, we were obligated to sing the Mory's song boisterously, the lyrics of which I will spare you here in the blog. Once the cup was thoroughly dried using Kyla's head, she had to turn it upside down on the table, have three people pile hands on the top, and bang it with her ring. Fortunately for all of us, no drops showed up underneath it, or she would have had to buy another round and we would have had to do the whole thing all over again. AJ left that night and emptied Kyla's room of a bookcase in the process. I hope he didn't have to explain the Mory's ritual to any state troopers. It was so great for him to be there, though -- thanks Ursula!

The next morning was the actual Commence-
ment, which again took place on Old Campus. This time the entire Yale University graduating class (undergrads, Law, Medicine, etc) all marched in a procession in their various colored gowns across the New Haven Green. They then stepped aside as the Yale President's party walked down their length, students tipping their hats, and then proceeded inside to the quad. Dara and I opted to watch the procession first-hand and then watched the ceremony on the jumbotron. The dean of each school formally asked the Yale President to confer the degrees. Sandra Day O'Connor and Edward Albee were among the recipients of honorary degrees. Afterward, the undergrads dashed off to their residential colleges to sit through a smaller ceremony where the Dean and Master of the college gave out awards and handed over the actual diploma. This was followed by the famous all-natural sustainable food in the Berkeley College dining hall.

By that point it was all over but the packing and cleaning. Ten more boxes and an 8AM trip to the UPS store the next morning did the trick. As a final dirty trick, we got to the airport only to find that United didn't have us anywhere in their system. After a bit of disgruntled panicking, we found that we were on USAir again on the way out. We felt relieved to find we were only a few gates away to the USAir flight back to SFO when we got to Philadelphia. Relieved until we tried to get on board the plane, only to be told our Philadelphia-to-SFO leg was on United in another terminal. Ah, the glamour of travel. Well, we made it after all, and we have Kyla back home with us here for the summer until she is off to GW.