Commencement
Friday, May 21, 2010
Friday morning began early by dropping off Puck at the Silverspoon’s near 7:30, for the day. After a bite of bacon, off to the E Free church in Manchester for an 8:00 rehearsal with the miniature orchestra that would be playing for Covenant Seminary’s commencement service.
It was a rather enormous auditorium, draped in white cloth (for Pentecost?) before a stained glass window of the cross. OLeif was twenty minutes late, due to traffic, misdirections, and an overheating car as they pulled into the parking lot. But he made it, at least. And Collette sat in the back of the sanctuary until the rehearsal had ended half an hour later.
As they drove around the area, OLeif and Collette commented on the beautiful pairing of St. Louis estates: old, old homes kept in beautiful condition, middling homes from the later decades, cottages, sprawling ranches, bungalows, modern mansions, old mansions, and miniature plantations and horse fields. Always beautiful, St. Louis.
Meanwhile, there were four hours to kill, so first, to get coolant in the car, fill out some medical paper work, get a Twix bar for later and a five dollar mancala board, Queeny Park for four rounds of mancala under spritzing skies, and then to the Greek lunch at the Greek Orthodox church at 270 and Manchester.
The Greek Lunch at Assumption Greek Orthodox Church… wonderful food. It was all so… Greek. Everything had to be labeled ‘Greek’, just in case it wasn’t obvious enough. Just in case the statue of Hermes on the bathroom sink didn’t give it away.
Even for Collette, oh, the glory of a gyro!
And there was a Greek festival promised for all next weekend as well.
One-thirty arrived all too soon. It was time for another physical, as the previous medical letters had expired for the Colombian dossier. Not Collette’s cup of tea. But it was necessary. And so, at 1:15 they arrived for forty-five minutes of questions and papers. Then done.
To the seminary, another park for two rounds of mancala, a brief walk down memory lane in the woods where they had once found giant white mushrooms the size of ten-layer cakes. Border’s to hunt up graduation gifts… Five Guys Burgers and Fries for dinner… Collette felt very fat at the end of the day.
And finally, to commencement. This included, but was not limited to, the bagpipes. Collette felt the Scottish blood rise. Joseph Pi was graduating. The ‘Canadian’ fellow from church who occasionally played the bongo drum for worship. Collette’s old fellow Sunday School student, with whom she had been baptized. The Argentine pastor who had put the old green Honda to good use. Three students in the premiere of the Masters of Religion and Culture degree. And the deliverance of a charge by a Scottish minister [serving in Ohio], before the graduates were awarded their red velvet-lined hoods. During the ceremony, a young man in front of her translated the speaker’s words into Hungarian for his parents. And the whole ceremony was good, which ended nearly two hours later.
That night, there was a final hurrah of treats, which included snack mix, peanut butter M’nMs, and Warheads chewy cubes.