This is a CMZero Special Report:
May. 13th, 2004 11:17 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shirenomadWe arrived in O'Hare after an uneventful flight Thursday. Spent the next couple days moving JW's stuff to a new place. He's rooming with five other guys, all card-carrying geeks. Yes, Wheaton has geeks. "The evil of D&D" aside (which none of these five believe in anyway), you're talking about a college that houses one of the largest collection of Tolkien material this side of the Atlantic. So naturally, this convention of geeks (I'm claiming that's the proper collective noun until someone proves otherwise!) included a Middle Earth nut; also a Whedonite and a Trekkie. And all general gamers. More on them in a bit...
Andrew, unfortunately, had a final Saturday morning... and another Monday morning. So he comes flying in Saturday afternoon and out again Sunday evening. He nonetheless got to see the graduation itself Sunday afternoon and enjoy a few meals with us. And play Ninja Burger. We bummed it out of the house gaming closet and the entire family played Saturday evening after dinner. Mom, with her incredible beginner's luck, crushed us in two rounds the first time, so we played again... might have been a mistake, because Game 2 remained deadlocked until about 12:30 am when Andrew finally got tired and deliberately sabotaged his chances in order to push Dad to victory.
Did you know the Anglicans have churches in America? JW goes to one. Rather "high church" (liturgical, ritualistic, formal), though the pastor wasn't above tossing jokes into his sermon, and the worship team (for all you non-church-goers, the "band") was largely college students on guitars and keyboards. Still too much for Andrew, who found it stiff and artificial, but JW likes the formality. I didn't mind it, but I still prefer the more relaxed atmosphere of my home church.
Then came graduation Sunday afternoon. Unfortunately, students only got three tickets to the commencement each (they were short on seating), so Mom and Dad got one each, then to be fair JW sold the third and had both Andrew and I watch the live broadcast in another hall. Which I was fine with; made it easier to do other stuff while they read off A-Q.
There's this tradition, incidentally, where graduating students all give the chancellor (president? help me out, Will, what's his title?) something in exchange for the degree. This year, the theme was something to wear. JW gave him a generic tie, but some of the weirder gifts included boxers (gleefully unfurled before the audience before being handed off), single shoes (removed at the last minute; poor planners, perhaps?), and one toupee (the recipient, for the record, has a full head of hair).
Finally, Monday, we flew home... *waits in the airport for hours* ...I SAID, we flew home! I didn't think the weather looked all that bad out there, but the AA board along listed about half the flights as delayed or canceled. I suppose we should be thankful we were in the former category, but we were nearly in the latter due to someone misplacing our plane in Indianapolis (refueling issues, apparently). But our heroic pilot went to negotiate for a replacement (he didn't like sitting around either), and we got out "only" two hours late. Got home at 12:30 am with no energy or clean clothes, called the office to leave a message that I would probably be late the next morning (got permission to blow the day off entirely, thank God), and crashed, jet lagged, around 1:30. I still blame that for the flu I developed over the next two days.
Speaking of the flu, feeling better but still tired (which explains the delay in this post). Sleeping now, talk tomorrow.
Andrew, unfortunately, had a final Saturday morning... and another Monday morning. So he comes flying in Saturday afternoon and out again Sunday evening. He nonetheless got to see the graduation itself Sunday afternoon and enjoy a few meals with us. And play Ninja Burger. We bummed it out of the house gaming closet and the entire family played Saturday evening after dinner. Mom, with her incredible beginner's luck, crushed us in two rounds the first time, so we played again... might have been a mistake, because Game 2 remained deadlocked until about 12:30 am when Andrew finally got tired and deliberately sabotaged his chances in order to push Dad to victory.
Did you know the Anglicans have churches in America? JW goes to one. Rather "high church" (liturgical, ritualistic, formal), though the pastor wasn't above tossing jokes into his sermon, and the worship team (for all you non-church-goers, the "band") was largely college students on guitars and keyboards. Still too much for Andrew, who found it stiff and artificial, but JW likes the formality. I didn't mind it, but I still prefer the more relaxed atmosphere of my home church.
Then came graduation Sunday afternoon. Unfortunately, students only got three tickets to the commencement each (they were short on seating), so Mom and Dad got one each, then to be fair JW sold the third and had both Andrew and I watch the live broadcast in another hall. Which I was fine with; made it easier to do other stuff while they read off A-Q.
There's this tradition, incidentally, where graduating students all give the chancellor (president? help me out, Will, what's his title?) something in exchange for the degree. This year, the theme was something to wear. JW gave him a generic tie, but some of the weirder gifts included boxers (gleefully unfurled before the audience before being handed off), single shoes (removed at the last minute; poor planners, perhaps?), and one toupee (the recipient, for the record, has a full head of hair).
Finally, Monday, we flew home... *waits in the airport for hours* ...I SAID, we flew home! I didn't think the weather looked all that bad out there, but the AA board along listed about half the flights as delayed or canceled. I suppose we should be thankful we were in the former category, but we were nearly in the latter due to someone misplacing our plane in Indianapolis (refueling issues, apparently). But our heroic pilot went to negotiate for a replacement (he didn't like sitting around either), and we got out "only" two hours late. Got home at 12:30 am with no energy or clean clothes, called the office to leave a message that I would probably be late the next morning (got permission to blow the day off entirely, thank God), and crashed, jet lagged, around 1:30. I still blame that for the flu I developed over the next two days.
Speaking of the flu, feeling better but still tired (which explains the delay in this post). Sleeping now, talk tomorrow.
