Graduation Week
For me, Graduation Week started last Tuesday, which is when a bunch of us decided to go camping on an absolutely amazing piece of property about 45 minutes from the college. It’s owned by a guy named Bob Bushnell, of Bushnell Performance Optics, which is the company that makes Bushnell telescopes and Bushnell binoculars. In other words, a very rich man.
But not only is Bob rich in money, he’s rich in generosity too. We met him when we worked at the Dorset Theater Festival. He’s on the board of directors. He made us feel welcome to come up to his place whenever we wanted to play frisbee on his dozens of acres, or just hang out at his fire-pit in the middle of a beautiful glenn. We’ve camped out at his place a few times over the years — once without even having the opportunity to ask him first — and he’s always been the most gracious host imaginable.
On Wednesday, my buddy Chris dragged me to see Dark Star Orchestra down near Albany. I say dragged because, although I really wanted to go, it usually takes someone else to get me out my door. But I couldn’t have been happier that I went. I don’t usually hang out with the group of people we went down with, but as with most treks to a Grateful Dead-type show, you can pretty much rest assured that everyone is going to be mellow and friendly. This group of people was no different. Everyone was just looking to enjoy themselves, and you can’t get much better than that. Oh, I should probably mention that a couple of my favorite professors were there, and it doesn’t get much better than dancing to the Dead with your professors.
The concert itself was pretty cool. I had never seen DSO, which if you don’t know, is a rather successful Grateful Dead cover band. They usually play full shows from the Dead (they pick a date and play the set list), but this was their fourth or fifth time playing this particular venue, so they decided to reward the crowd with a “fantasy set” (which you can find here). It surprised me that they still chose to play “Drums->Space” and to play a Brent tune (not to mention “Tons of Steel”), but they made up for it with an incredible “Mama Tried->Mexicali Blues” that had me dancing so hard that I forgot for a few minutes how lazy I am. They also played a bunch of Dylan tunes, including “The Mighty Quinn” to close the second set and “It’s All Over Now, Baby Blue” as their final encore. All in all, Dark Star Orchestra impressed the hell out of me and I would definitely recommend them to anyone who misses the Dead.
On Thursday, our friends Kimmy and Jilly showed up. Kimmy graduated from Green Mountain in my freshman year, but her, Dawn, and I were pretty much inseparable for that year. Jilly was a friend of ours who Dawn and I didn’t hang out with that much, but whenever we did, we had just an awesome time. Kimmy and Jilly lived together for a while in Burlington before Kimmy moved back to Detroit to begin her career as a professional angel for animals. We hadn’t seen either of them in at least a year, so it was just awesome to have them crashing on our floor in Poultney.
That night, the Senior class had the annual Go-to-a-Bar-and-Get-Trashed-as-a-Class thing. We rented out the Lakehouse, which is on one of the lakes around the college, and just got our drink on. I spent most of the evening talking politics with a dude who I almost always disagree with but who I rarely interact with on a one-on-one basis. There’s nothing better than being in a beautiful bar, drinking good beer, and talking politics in a friendly, let’s shoot the shit kind of way. He was convinced that 2008 is going to be between McCain and Clinton, and that McCain would mop the floor with her because of his moderate policies. I told him that I didn’t think Clinton would make it out of the Democratic primaries and that McCain would have to swing too far to the right in the Republican primaries to enter the general election without tarnishing his “moderate” image in the eyes of the centrist Dems. It took us about two hours to make either of those points because people just kept jumping in for a few words here and there. Anyway, it was definitely a good time.
Friday was rehearsal day. It started with a brunch for all the seniors, where they handed out a bunch of academic awards. It turned out that both Dawn and I (and Will too) were graduating Suma Cum Laude. I know that, as an old dude, such a thing is kind of expected of me (my friend Vince once said, “It’s like sending an NFL quarterback into a high-school football game”), but that’s not going to stop me from feeling a little proud of myself (and Dawn and Will). Regardless of whatever intelligence I may have, I was never, in my life, a good student. I just never had the work ethic to sit down and do my homework, or the patience to sit through class without having a novel in my lap. But for some reason, I really got down with the whole college education thing, especially the whole progressive college education thing. The fact that three of the top four people in our class were members of the Progressive Program just goes to show how amazing an opportunity it was for us. Anyway, fuck all you naysayers, I’m proud of myself :-)
My parents and brother showed up that night, so we spent the evening having drinks and dinner with them at the 99 (or as an old friend used to call it, “the nines”). Meanwhile, back at the choir concert on campus, my friend Amanda sang her senior solo, only to have her boyfriend walk out at the end of it and propose to her on stage. I wasn’t there, but I heard that it was an incredible experience, not just for Amanda and her now fiance, but also for everyone in the crowd, including Sam Waterston.
On Saturday morning, we graduated. I don’t remember too much because I had to piss so bad, but Sam gave a great speech and Amanda (who besides getting engaged, was also our student speaker) gave one too. Her last line was something along the lines of, “Hey mom, I told you I wouldn’t cuss or say vagina on stage!” Sam got a big kick out of that. He literally almost fell out of his seat.
Saturday night was the party. It was the first time Dawn’s family met mine, and that was pretty cool. Her sisters and my brothers were inseparable for most of the night, probably because her sisters are crazy and my brothers like to drink. At one point in the night, my mom started talking about her upcoming trip to Vegas, and I was like, “Vegas? Who you goin’ to Vegas with?” Turns out that my mom and dad and Dawn’s mom and her fiance planned a trip to Vegas sometime within their first hours of meeting each other. I think it’s safe to say that everyone got along very well.
As an added bonus, there were a bunch of parents and teachers there (I think my buddy Jamie said, “Leave it to Dawn and Kyle to throw their first keg only to have parents and professors show up”). So everyone got to meet everyone. I can’t tell you how cool it was to see how much everyone enjoyed each other. It was one of those parties where everyone was talking to everyone, and there wasn’t one person or one clique/group that hovered on the outskirts. I remember at one point walking up and seeing my dad, who isn’t really into talking politics too much and who worked for GE before he retired, listening to my buddy Alex, who was a little tipsy, rant about (I think) corporate influence on American politics. I remember saying to my dad, “If you want me to stop him, let me know; otherwise, he’ll go on all night,” and my dad said, “No, we’re having a great time!”
I really wish you all could have made it up for the weekend. You all would have had the best time.
But that’s enough about last week. I’ll have to tell you about what happened this week some other time.