hermionesviolin | Entries tagged with smith: commencement

Alumnae worldwide will be able to hear Rachel Maddow, Smith’s 2010 Commencement speaker, via live Web stream on the Smith Website. The college will also simulcast the ceremony to John M. Greene Hall, rain or shine. The 132nd Commencement ceremony will take place at 10 a.m., Sunday, May 16. Maddow is scheduled to speak at 10:45 a.m.

I am seriously considering going to church at First Churches Northampton instead of Commencement. I mean, I can always read the speech online afterward, and I have about zero interest in the actual Commencement experience.

Reunion weekend? I am most excited about getting to see Stacey (whom I worked with at SCMA). Second-most excited about getting to see Gillian, et al (i.e., the people I met at Smith and am not in touch with as much as I might like). The official Smith part of the whole Reunion thing sort of makes me shrug (much as I loved my time at Smith).

I should email my English profs, but I feel Inferiority Complex. (Really I need to email Liz Carr.)

Peter Ives is retiring!

The Council of First Churches unanimously approved the appointment of Reverend Mark Seifried (pronounced “sigh”-”freed,”) to serve as Interim Minister of First Churches of Northampton following the retirement of Reverend Peter Ives on June 30, 2010. Reverend Seifried, who is known as Pastor Mark, will begin his duties on June 23 and will join Reverend Ives in the pulpit for Reverend Ive’s final worship service at First Churches on June 27, 2010.

[...]

Pastor Mark lives with his partner Dave and their two occasional-visiting adult sons in Worcester, where he is active in his neighborhood and city. He will be commuting to First Churches in his 2001, well-used Prius Hybrid that takes 3 gallons of gas for a round trip."

Oh, Northampton ... ♥

And because I've seen this story linked ~3 times today:

Lord Jesus Christ suffers minor injuries in downtown Northampton crosswalk mishap

NORTHAMPTON - A 20-year-old Pittsfield driver was cited by police Tuesday after she ran down Lord Jesus Christ in a marked crosswalk at Main Street and Strong Avenue, police said.

[...]

Savino said officers checked Christ’s identification at the scene and confirmed it was his legal name.

Tammy Baldwin gave the Commencement address at my alma mater this year.

The Commencement page says "At the age of 37, Baldwin became both the first woman and the first non-incumbent, openly gay person to be elected to represent her state [Wisconsin] in Congress. She was re-elected to her sixth term in 2008 and currently serves in the 111th Congress."

I read her address online.

Near the beginning she says:

My bio says I won my first campaign for public office when I was 24 years old. But my classmates always remind me that’s not completely true. My first campaign was right here at Smith when I ran for president of my house. I felt confident. I had passionately followed politics for years. And, not only was it my house, it was called Baldwin House.

Needless to say, I lost. But, I learned my lesson. I’ve never run another campaign against a Smithie. And I’ve never lost another election.

Aww.

Okay, I'm excerpting most of the remainder of her speech.

One of my favorite professors was Jim Henle. My first class with him was “infinitesimal calculus.” I was a math major and a pretty sharp student. In his class he did something that took me completely by surprise.

He assigned us “insoluble problems” -- problems with no solutions -- as homework. We weren’t expected to come up with the answers. But we were expected to show some progress.

Professor Henle’s point was that by pushing against the boundaries of what we knew, we could expand those boundaries. Of course, in the back of our heads, a lot of us had another thought: that every problem starts out as insoluble. Then somebody goes and cracks it.

I never figured out any of the problems. There’s a reason I became a politician and not a mathematician. But as my career has progressed, I’ve thought back to that class many times.

Far too often, our greatest challenges are portrayed as insoluble problems. And our reaction is to throw up our hands, say “oh well,” and go on to the next challenge. But history teaches us that even our biggest problems have solutions. How do you calculate the area of a circle? How do you build a computer for less than a million dollars? How do you govern without a King... or Queen? All insoluble problems -- or so they seemed.

( Read more... )

The Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr. said “the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends towards justice.” He used it in many speeches, but the most famous time was in his speech in Montgomery after the march from Selma.

Remember this was the third attempt to march. The first time, they were attacked by the police with clubs and tear gas and had to turn back. The second time, they were stopped by a judge’s order. The third time, they finally made it all 54 miles to Montgomery where Dr. King gave his speech.

However, all they had accomplished was getting to Montgomery. They hadn’t changed any laws. They hadn’t gotten any concessions. Jim Crow was still the law of the land.

Today, we remember the march from Selma as a key turning point in the civil rights struggle. This is how progress happens. You push and push and push until you can’t push any more. Sometimes you are beaten back. But in the end, that arc bends just slightly and the world is a better place.

Many of you know this history. I raise it today because it is easy to forget that in the history books, we always know how the story ends. Real life is different. We can’t see that far ahead. We don’t know what the future brings.

It becomes easy to focus on problems that have clear cut solutions. How do I get this job? How do I get this apartment? How do I pass this bill? Avoiding the insoluble problems means saying that at best, we can do only a little bit better. What a tragic pronouncement!

***

I heart fandom. Someone linked to the NYT article "Dear Donna: A Pinup So Swell She Kept G.I. Mail", commenting, "I can't recommend this story highly enough. Both because it is Memorial Day, but also because it offers a really unique window on (and starting point for discussion about) fan/celebrity interaction."

Current Music: !Finlandia

OriginalRoomie's mom is in town for the week. She did manage to get the dome of our bathroom light unscrewed so now we can Let There Be Light, so I'm forgiving her some of her annoying-ness, for now.

I should have been working on my Neil Gaiman writeup or something, but instead I read fic and stuff. I did at least do some grocery shopping after evening church. And I feedbacked most of the fic I read, so I get productivity points of some kind. Kita said, "you give some of the best feedback around, seriously. It's like a lovely and unexpected present." *twirls*

I sometimes plug fics into del.icio.us to get ideas for how to write up my own recs (this is almost never helpful) and then sometimes I'll click on other people's tags and oh... del.icio.us can be so awesome, but other people make me so sad. My tagging system is rather *cough* organized.

I've been recalling various unfinished fics of mine and wanting to go back to them, but giving all the other things I'm not working on I suspect these won't even make the list. Which is sort of sad.

Oh, and mjules, I'm still loving your fanmixes :)

***

Over Coffee Hour, Jill asked me who Smith's Commencement speaker was this year. Neither of us had looked it up. She asked who the speaker was my year, and I totally blanked on the name but sort of stumbled over talking about the themes -- how when she graduated there was pressure to Have It All but now that that's more the norm she thinks the question should be whether you can have at all but whether you want it all, and how she told a story about a waitress in Manhattan who loves her job. Jill was very glad to hear this 'cause she definitely sees women being looked down on for "giving up" a career to raise their children, said when she was in college they were told to "hire good help" because of course they wouldn't take care of. She said her graduation speaker was Betty Friedan.

Of course when I got home I looked up the Commencement speaker both for my year (Shelly Lazarus, class of 1968) and this year.

Award-winning playwright Margaret Edson, a Smith College alumna who teaches kindergarten in the Atlanta public school system, was the speaker at Smith College’s 130th commencement ceremony Sunday, May 18. Following her address, Edson, along with Christiane Amanpour, CNN’s chief international correspondent, and Beate Sirota Gordon, women’s rights advocate, received honorary degrees.
-http://www.smith.edu/commencement/

From Edson's speech:

Classroom teaching withholds nothing. I say to my young students every year, “I know how to add two numbers, but I’m not going to tell you.” And they laugh and shout, “No!” That’s so absurd, so unthinkable. What do I have that I would not give to you?

Near the end, she says:

If you can point to something, you might lose it, or you might break it, or someone might take it from you. As long as you store it inside yourself, it’s not going anywhere -- or it’s going everywhere with you.

Part of me thinks, "What about relationships? You can't exactly point to those, but oh how fragile they can be." But I know what she's getting at and can roll with that.

Current Music: Jars of Clay - "Only Alive"

What Graduation Weekend stories did i forget?

In one of the classes my dad was subbing for, some kids were talking about who's gay at NHS [the high school i went to and which he substitute teaches at now] and being so matter-of-fact about it -- "He's bi," "Her girlfriend's from Sharon," etc. This made me happy.

At graduation rehearsal they told us not to open booze at the graduation ceremony out of respect for alcoholics -- the best argument i've heard yet for that policy.

At Commencement, the Senior Class gift to the college was a rock, symbolic of a larger rock which would be erected for students and orgs to paint on. I thought of Hollins :)

P.S. Dominique took pictures of the comp-sci majors graduating, and

jessikins4774 has pictures from Ivy Day and Commencement, if you want a feel for what it all looked like. And Cate has an account of the Baccalaureate i skipped out on.

During Senior Week, one thing i did was to read some of the other fairy tale retellings in the collections i'd gotten out to do research for my seminar paper. I never did get around to posting the highlights:

Dorothy Lee Richardson's "Modern Grimm" from Disenchantments (ed. Wolfgang Mieder) is really interesting.

Tanith Lee's "Snow-Drop" (from Snow White, Blood Red) is omg hot and chilling.

From Black Thorn, White Rose:
"Words Like Pale Stones" by Nancy Kress - some really interesting thoughts on words and beauty and etc.
"Stronger Than Time" by Patricia C. Wrede - interesting thoughts on how fairy tales and magic spells work

I really like Sisters in Fantasy 2.
"Shahrezad" by Ellen Guon and "Dumping Ra" by Sharan Newman both use tropes i've seen before, but they're still done well here.
"Angel of the City" by Susan Shwartz is reminiscent of various angels i've seen in other stories, but is very well done. I have such a weakness for angels who are oh so human.
"Why Is This Night Different" by Janni Lee Simner is a wonderfully interesting and powerful story that hits a lot of my kinks (not sexual ones, thematic ones).

Oh, and Anthony Schmitz's Darkest Desire: The Wolf's Own Tale includes a really interesting on the Grimms and their tale collection.

And because i always forget to look them up when i'm home, the creepy-as-fuck tales i grew up on are: The Fairy Tale Book a deluxe golden book illustrated by Adrienne Segur ("Donkey-Skin," Madame d'Aulnoy's "The White Deer" and "The Royal Ram" -- also includes stuff like "Urashima and the Turtle" and Madame d'Aulnoy's "Queen Cat"), and The Unbroken Web by Richard Adams ("The Giant Eel," "The Moddey Dhoo," "The Robin").

What else have i been doing?

My grandma approves of my break from academia, which is a relief since she was the one person i was really worried about telling. The plans i do have seem to not really register. Her short-term memory is so going, and she definitely doesn't tend to retain things that don't fit with what she's expecting, so i rather suspect we'll be telling her about bartender training and massage school to blank looks for weeks.

I finally watched Sliding Doors. I approve. For the most part anyway.

. . . There are two schools of thought about the resilience of time. The first is that time is highly volatile, with every small event altering the possible outcome of the earth's future. The other view is that time is rigid, and no matter how hard you try, it will always spring back toward a determined present. Myself, I do not worry about such trivialities. I simply sell ties to anyone who wants to buy one . . .
Tie seller in Victoria, June 1983
-from The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde

One of the things that bugged me about the movie also came up in Grey's Anatomy (which i saw for the first time tonight). Who today has unprotected heterosexual sex -- i mean, have you heard of pregnancy? And a slew of doctors?! [Also, the ease with which Alex homo-bantered made me heart him like whoa, but to say "unprotected sex" and not mention anything about non-penis sex? I object.]

I had orientation for massage school Thursday night. The assorted walks involved are not a big deal. Saw so many sailors. Apparently the JFK has been in port.

My grandma took me to Salem years ago, and i have vague memories of North Station as something akin to Back Bay station. Now, however, it is omgFleetCenterliekwhoa! I am displeased.

Walking to Palmer i passed a sign saying, "Welcome To The Open Door United Church of Christ" [salemmission.org]. The adjacent sign (they seemed to share a building -- which looked to me like a Catholic church building) was for St. Clare of Assisi - Catholic Church in America, "An Association of Catholic Churches NOT In Communion With The Roman Catholic Church" [catholicchurchinamerica.org].
Sometime last semester, Ruhi was asking Emily about this thing she had heard of, Catholic Church of America, not affiliated with Rome, and she was wondering if Emily knew anything about it.

The people at Palmer are all effusive and everything, and definitely knowledgeable, but the hippie-dippie-ness puts me on edge. During the orientation, the instructors all talked about the courses they taught, and they talked about the National Certification Exam, and the woman who heads the school talked about how it's a computerized test, created by people who don't necessarily know anything about massage but know a lot about testing, and how it's multiple choice, and she said something about how you have to live in your brain for a few hours (while you're taking the exam) and she said that can be difficult for massage therapists [which does make sense insomuch as massage work is very body-oriented and to some degree intuitive and not an explicitly intellectual work], saying she hardly ever lives in her brain, and i thought, "But i always live in my brain." I'm really into physical contact -- hugs, cuddling, that kind of thing -- but i so very much live inside my head, working with words rather than bodies. And this whole energy focus makes me wonder if i'm at the right place at all. I picked it because it was the only one i could commute to, and i figure it's better to have the knowledge and choose to not use it than to not have that option. And i am such a whore for knowledge, as evidenced when the instructors were talking about their courses and my mental list of Want to Take was growing.

A number of the women (instructors) had bleached blond hair, and makeup, and one had a dark tan that to me yelled tanning salon. This seemed out of kilter and bothered me far more than all the talk about working with your clients' energy etc.

And omg the EarthLite catalog. You can purchase massage tables with names like Pegasus and Everest, and there are nature pictures taking up half of each page. It's intense. Tempts me to set up my scanner.

At dinner on Friday, i learned that my mom knew one of the instructors before, because she did social work stuff. Said instructor was one of the people i liked best from the brief introductions we got. And she does a 4-hour "Caring for Victims of Abuse" workshop [as part of Anatomy&Physiology III lecture series] which i want to manage to attend if not this session then sometime.

That Friday we bought alcohol, my choice. I ended up deciding on Blue Moon Riesling and admitted to being sucked in by the label (though i read the label for every Riesling in the store and had reasons besides just the label for choosing what i did). I said i was a victim of their marketing. We came outside to a beautiful sunset and i said i was a victim of God's marketing :) The Riesling, for the record, is quite good, though the guy in the store was right that American Riesling is drier than German Riesling.

I applied for a slew of administrative assistant type jobs this weekend (and a variety of other jobs, as i have no shame -- though i still won't work for MassPIRG). Looking at the listings, i don't want the ones that want me to manage teams or whatever; i want brainless work. I keep thinking of Stacey's apologies for not giving me challenging work and my insistence that really this was what i wanted, that i used my brain enough. And also of this year's commencement speaker talking about a waitress in her area who loves her job in large part because it gives her the freedom to do so much else with her life.
I did a cognitive whosiewhatsie and ow my brain. The recognizing faces portion reminded me of my self-defense class.

offbalance has the most eclectic "5 books that mean a lot to me" i've seen for that meme yet. (She's also the second person to tag me to do that meme. And i will do it. That question is just like the hardest thing evar.)

Post-"Chosen": Girl Pitches Perfect Little League Game and

ladyvorkosigan wrote The BSC, Vampire Slayers which i think i'm afraid to read.

twinkledru says, I am really, really tempted to write a "Five Jedi Yoda Never Trained" story. With one of the five being River.

Whole lotta links about writing teh sex in the most recent

metafandom. Basically summed up by: generalizations are bad, and stating your opinions in an inflammatory manner riles people up. I do like this bit, though. ( cut for some explicitness ) Oh, and

jadelennox quotes a Newbery winner: "reality is no excuse for fiction".

In the interest of getting rid of stuff:
~~--The Blending by Sharon Green (6 book series, quite good, i just don't expect to reread them anytime soon)~~
-- the first four Earth's Children (The Clan of the Cave Bear etc.) books in paperback (i really like the first book and keep intending to read the rest, but i'm thinking it's not gonna happen anytime soon)
Any interested parties?

Hey, Ashley, it's not Showgirls, but...

And Emma, clearly this is when you should come visit me :)

"I have this big tattoo on my back. It means 'love and peace in the world' but mostly it just means 'drunk and 18'." -Vanessa Marcil (number 20-something on the Maxim Hot 100 - courtesy of VH1)
Angelina Jolie is only #7?

And okay, i think i'm done now.

I've gotta say, i really appreciate the validation of my post-graduation plans. I get all stubborn independent "my life, therefore my opinion wins," but it's still comforting and strengthening to be affirmed, to have other people agree with me. And Gillian and Briana both say i'll be the best date ever ;)

So anyway, Commencement Weekend.

Rehearsal Friday morning was lame. It did give me a better idea of how the ceremony was gonna go, and Meg and i got to feel cool 'cause we know what "speech act" is [and it sounds so much like a marriage pronouncement, too -- "by the power vested in the Board of Trustees and delegated..."], and i enjoyed the projector images even though they were hard to see, but it wasn't tremendously helpful, and oh the stupid questions people asked. There were i think 2 valid questions -- neither of which the woman was able to answer well (how early will the ITT be open if graduation is inside, and how are we supposed to do our graduation hoods). Liked the German guy running things, though. Afterward, we took the class picture on a steep grassy knoll, which was ever so much fun. Lunch was good. Danne gave me a rose. I got a graduation card from a couple at First Churches whose faces i can't even think of to match with their names.

My parents arrived Friday evening and we went to see Six Characters in Search of an Author. Well-acted. Unsure how i feel about the play itself. Interesting ideas about how no one else can really be you. But characters in a play aren't actually existant persons, they're characters created to be performed by other people. (As opposed to characters in books, who were created to exist within their own world and not to be embodied by other people.) The immutable is more real? Yes reality is always changing (as they say) but does that make the past an "illusion"? Is saying "No, it's memory; that's different" a cop-out?

Ivy Day was Saturday morning. Side-zipping dresses are a bitch, and i owe Poorn much love. It was actually pretty. (They should have told us the reason to arrive 45 minutes early was so that everyone could take pictures of us. Have i mentioned how the Commencement/IvyDay rehearsal didn't actually include anything about Ivy Day?) After all the processions, though, when we sat down and listened to people talk, i was cold and bored. [When i said i wanted winter back, i didn't mean when i was sitting outside in a sleeveless dress.] Reminiscent of Class Day. The box lunch following was yum, and i first went home to change into real clothes, so sitting outside and eating was nice.

We went to SCMA next, and i abandoned my family partway through for the departmental reception to search for Jessie. I hung out with Meredith, and Joan (whom i don't see enough), and saw Mary Barbara [Sherborn lady], and finally found Jessie. Also Skarda -- who was giving out department pins for regalia, which apparently they've been getting rid of for at least 2 years. I rather liked them, though i actually forgot to attach to my robe come Sunday. After my family finished with SCMA, they went to Lyman and then found me. They got a rather full Skarda experience.

Skarda suggested i write about massage in literature -- seedy and all. I said it would be like my seminar paper -- fun to research but not so much to write. She said she doesn't think of her massager as the brightest bulb. And it's hard to get employ as the market is glutted -- but then, she pays one.

Skarda said only about 300 people (recent stat, probably from Atlantic Monthly) support themselves from their writing. My father suspects this doesn't include, say, journalists. He says i seem very comfortable with words -- very comfortable in front of a keyboard, using words. So true.

Skarda told Joan's mom that she could always count on us to say smart things in Telling and Retelling. Joan didn't remember speaking much at all in that class, and i'm inclined to agree (though i know i talked a lot) but whatever. Reminded me a touch of Liz Carr's effusiveness, which was amusing.

Saw Prof. Kaminksy, who asked about my post-graduation plans. I told him bartending and massage school. "See, that's that look i was talking about." No, actually, he was thinking about all that practice you have to do, and would i be local. And he managed to not make it sound skeezy. I mean, i know him, so i know it's not skeezy, but it's so the kind of thing that would have come out skeezy if i'd said it, so i was impressed.

We had dinner at Fresh Pasta, which was yum as usual. And because our reservations were for 5pm we beat the dinner rush.

There was time to kill before Illumination Night, so i picked up my Zaleski final, since i'd been forgetting to that for days. ( cut for professorial commentage )

When i was finally hungry again we went to Burdick and i got a $4 hot chocolate. Not the sex-in-a-cup i was recalling from Winter Weekend, but still good.

Illumination was one of the few graduation exercises i was kind of excited about, and it disappointed. The lanterns looked like balloons (pink, yellow, yellow-green, blue) though they were less bad when one was close-up (they had shrubbery designs on them) or when they were illuminated. The Senior Candle Lighting was kinda lame -- we all got white candles and the class president lit them and then it was like "okay, yay you, you can go wander the illuminated paths now." I was expecting some sort of procession -- since that seems to be a theme this weekend, and a procession of people holding candles would be cool.

Sunday was Pentecost. I did the Scripture Reading (Acts 2:1-21 and 1 Corinthians 12:4-13) and was also asked to do the Call to Worship, which i willingly did, though i'm not sure how i feel about it. ( Read it if you're interested. ) (Googling, it's apparently a poem by R.S. Thomas -- a 20^th-century Welsh poet.)

Apparently Pentecost is considered the birth of the church, so they did confirmation this Sunday. In... South America i think Tessa said it was... they pour flame colored rose petals over heads as symbolic of the flames of the Pentecost story, so she had the little kids do that to the confirmands.

Peter's sermon was called "In Our Own Native Language," and he talked about the confirmation class kids' statements of faith and how we each have our own frames of reference and things that are particularly important to us and so on, so when we talk about our faith it's like we have our own individual language, but people are still able to understand us, and it is due to the Holy Spirit that we are able to bridge some of the more difficult gaps. I was a little confuzzled because my interpretation of the Acts account was that the disciples -- who were all from approximately the same linguistic region -- spoke and all those gathered (who came from a multitude of linguistic regions) heard their words in their own native tongues, not that the disciples all spoke in their own native tongues and everyone present was somehow able to understand them.

During her statement of faith, Isabelle used the phrase "war-torn," and i want people to understand why God sometimes demands -- or is interpreted as demanding -- violence or other things that we perceive as not good. I had a moment of intense contra-left-ness and wished for God to be full of wrath and vengeance and pro-killing-people. More sanely, i want people to realize that it is not true that the Bible fully supports what they value and that they're opponents are just wrong and misinterpreting; i want them to realize that it is complicated. (Gee, look at how that is always my desire.)

Back when Peter first asked i wanted to be involved in a graduation service, my mom suggested that i ask for "Here I Am, Lord" to be included. I didn't, since there wasn't really an opening to do so. However. What was the closing hymn? "I Danced in the Morning" I learned that i don't dislike the tune -- though it doesn't feel quite right -- and it's so not as obnoxious as it sounds when F. sings it ;)

I got so many congratulations after the service. MJ gave me a card with a Starbucks gift card -- because i so frequently do tea duty and she comes over and chats with my while she drinks her coffee.

They were having a luncheon thing, so we went back to campus for brunch. My brother said that people should just pay off portions of his student loans instead of giving him physical gifts. (He's gonna graduate RPI with way more loans than i have from Smith). I like that idea :) (2 graduation cards arrived for me on Saturday -- both containing checks :) )

Like Ivy Day, Graduation seemed to require arriving 45 minutes early in large part for the photo ops. I was rather indifferent. I did actually get excited when we started to process, though, feeling all official and proud, and the happy face. I saw a whole lot of people i knew on the sidelines and had a good view of the faculty procession. It was a bit chilly, but i had jeans and other appropriate clothes on under my robe, so i didn't mind much. And the college had thoughtfully provided us with bottled water underneath our seats.

There were a few drops of rain at the beginning of the procession, but otherwise it was completely fine. And i actually liked both speeches -- Lauren Wolfe (to whose election as my class president [insert "She's not my president" joke here] my near immediate reaction was dread of Commencement) and Shelly Lazarus -- and approved of the honorary degrees. Lazarus, class of 1968, talked about expectations and about what things were like when she graduated. She said the question now isn't whether you can have at all but whether you want it all. She talked about a Manhattan waitress who loves her job, saying, "Don't judge!" [Edit: link to full speech]

The whole thing only took about two hours. A half hour of procession, a half hour of speeches, 45 minutes graduating us, plus about 10 minutes for the masters candidates, and then we were done. Except for the Diploma Circle. It sounds like a neat tradition in theory, but we had like the most ineffective diploma circle evar. You're supposed to pass diplomas in concentric circles, passing the diplomas you've already seen into new circles, but we just ended up passing the same diplomas, and sometimes we had stacks of them and sometimes our hands were empty, so we finally just made one big circle -- which feels to me like how it should work anyway -- and i got mine relatively quickly at that point. Immediately post-Graduation is an impossible time to see people, and i was impressed by the speed at which i connected with my family, but i was lucky enough to see Layna at the CC (where i used up my remaining OneCard money on more drinks). And hopefully now that we're residing in the same vicinity i'll get to see more of her.

Summation of the weekend: Having events structured as meaningful moments, like, "You're going to do this, and it's going to be meaningful for you," is weird. [Edit: Last week, Stacey said something about me being a control-freak and i said i didn't usually use that phrase, though i definitely use a number of similar phrases/adjectives for myself, but the phrase kept recurring in my head this weekend, since i know i really like to be able to control what i'm doing and i was realizing that that was probably the reason behind a lot of my ragifying moments this weekend. The fact that i didn't know in advance exactly how things were gonna function, trying unsuccessfully to find people, etc. -- all that is the kind of stuff that drives me up a wall.]

P.S. My brother says he's been pleasantly surprised by senior ceremonies (his and mine) and we had similar thoughts about what was good and what wasn't. He was a good sport about being dragged around all weekend, regardless.

I have Palmer orientation this Thursday. In the mail on Monday i got my Student ID. Look, i'm officially a student again :) I really do need to get myself an actual job. And, um, bugger. I didn't actually coordinate the transportation before registering for a Palmer class, so i didn't think about the fact that i'm dependent upon two commuter rails plus a subway and 10pm is perilously close to when commuter rails stop running in Boston. So yeah, don't actually have a way home. Ditto Sunday service for the first day of my bartending class. Why do i suck? My mom can drive me in to class on Memorial Day morning, though, so that's not a big deal. Any volunteers to drive me home from North or South Station in the vicinity of midnight every Tuesday night? Floors to crash on also appreciated.

I also need to get myself a real job. Having class at Salem at 6pm makes this whole office job thing difficult, though. Grr. See above re: thinking ahead and "I suck."

I read "Homestead" by inlovewithnight. A good solid story that reads like an episode of the show [Firefly]. The voice reminds me of the show i love so much and brings tears to my eyes.

marauderthesn asked for suggestions of "gay movies that are watchable with parents." I am so a bad person to ask. I mean, i watched Claire of the Moon with my mom. (Horrible movie, btw.) My favorite moment, though, was watching Jeffrey and the phone ringing and hitting pause right on the "sex" frame.

penknife says: "Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe trailer: looks very pretty, but who knows about the acting and the script. Good or not, will clearly be next year's shiny new fandom. I fear the badfic." All this Narnia movie talk is bringing out my seething loathing of adapting books into movies (Really need to write up that manifesto i do.) but the idea of more Narnia fic is appealing -- but then again, the fic i have loved has dealt with one of the things i hate about The Last Battle, and i don't tend to remember the minor characters in non-LWW books well enough to feel right reading fanfic about them, and i'm not sure how much good fanfic could be created with only the knowledge of LWW -- though White Witch backstory could be really interesting, either as post-MN for those who know it (which reminds me that i want more Illyria fic, also ancient!Dawn, and should check out History Lesson) or as AU for those writing only with knowledge of LWW, and the theology geek in me would be really interested in seeing any of the LWW characters post-LWW back in their own world.

I finally got a feedback on "Osiris Serenity" over on Blood Sings. Brought tears to my eyes. Interestingly, rereading the fic, i am less satisfied with it than i used to be.

Dear Lamonsters: Emma's been in a non-Internet mood, but she did reply to my e-mail and said "Miss you all, tell everyone I say hi."

When i tell people my post-graduation plans are bartending and massage schools, i get a lot of surprised reactions, and the kind of sorrowful "That's what you're doing with your degree from Smith?" But really, while academia has cache, bartending and massage school have actual employable skills. So instead of putting myself further into debt, qualified for a competitive niche market and perhaps overqualified for other things, and otherwise no different than i am now in terms of employability -- instead of all that, i'm gonna have actual skills i can use towards jobs i'm likely to actually get. But graduates of prestigious colleges and universities are supposed to do the high-powered, or at least brainy, careers. Le sigh. I'm excited about what i'm trying to do, and in the end that's what really matters since it is my life.

So yeah. I registered for bartender training -- DrinkMaster Boston because the location is uber-convenient, doing the one week (M-F 11am-3pm) program the week of May 30 -- and massage school -- Palmer Institute, summer session starts May 23, Massage I (foundational course) Tuesday 6-10pm for 12 weeks [May 24 - August 9].

Kind of scared 'cause, meep, so much less money in my bank account. But i mean, i paid in full 'cause i could. 'S not like i'm poor now.

I did my Direct Loan Exit Counseling. Using the rough numbers Smith had given me, i was guessing paying off all of it in six and a half years. The Standard Repayment Plan is 10 years however, and results in my paying back approximately 113%. Who's gonna be overpaying her payments like whoa? Yeah, me.

The heat on Tuesday made me feel lethargic. Yes i like it being warm enough to walk around outside in short-sleeves, but i'm so not a fan of the humidity. Hot and humid makes me crave my winter.

I checked my mail on Wednesday and among other things, i had my Skarda exam. "Choose one of the following questions for an essay that contains as much precision and specificity of detail and idea as did the texts we considered this semester." We had topics in advance, and i knew i was gonna do the "What difference (if any) does the gender of the author make on women characters' place in society, function in the household, narrative perspective, or plot of the story? Be specific" question. I did like no preparation, though, so my essay was full of generalizations and i had visions of "What part of 'Be specific' don't you understand? 15 points out of 30; I expected better from you." However, i only lost one point and got "I'm pleased to see that you haven't been blinded by feminism, Elizabeth." Oh Skarda. I knew i'd aced the rest of the exam, though, and i only lost a few points. Amusing given that i'd written my final long paper on The Eyre Affair, i mistakenly identified a passage from it as being from the original Jane Eyre :) "Fine exam, Elizabeth. Stay in touch. You've been a great pleasure to have in class even though you'll never find Wordsworth worthy. Happy Graduation to you."

My dad came that evening and took stuff back. He also briefed me various NHS alums [kids whom i still think of as upperclassmen]. NHS is doing Hamlet and Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead on alternating nights. I approve.

Wednesday night: Went to Herrell's 'cause i wanted ice cream. Saw Gillian on the way back. Went with her to get caffeine. Went back to her Friedman. Hung with people. Channel surfing 'cause some of us couldn't take any more of Good Eats, we stop at something and i say, "Is that Gina Gershon?" thinking, "And the horrible thing is, i only recognize her because of Showgirls." What are we watching? Showgirls of course. On VH1 of all channels. They start cleaning house and i go home. P00rn wants me to drink with her some time before we graduate, so i go over to Chase with her to drink with

aleksie. I had 12-year-old Glenlivet (high quality Scotch i'm told) with Pepsi. Definitely buzzed, and i didn't even drink it that fast ('cause, fucking strong). 3am-ish i left. Came home and drank water. In bed closer to 4. Up at 8:30 'cause my body's crazy. So i had breakfast for the first time in ages, which meant i wasn't hungry for lunch (and dude, it was fries and vegan nuggets, sadness). Had the long-promised pool game with Stacey. We played two rounds, though, so i have to come back for a tiebreaker at some point.

Skipped Baccalaureate. I hear it was lovely and all, but since i so don't feel attached to most of my class, structured reminscence time seemed awkward. Went to the senior bbq on Davis Lawn, though. One booze per person. Had a Smirnoff Twisted and then half of a friend's. Crashed afterward, in part because i'd gotten so little sleep the night before. Think it's gonna be an early to bed night. Have to be up at a reasonable hour tomorrow morning for Commencement/IvyDay rehearsal. Things are really nearing the end. Kinda scary. Finally really hitting me in the gut.

I was feeling a touch disappointed with the end of "Natural Born" (No Limits 13) but then i read "Crucible" (14) and things were good again -- in the sense of well-written and coherent, not happy of course.

In response to what was for me a rather short piece of feedback (i feedback like i LJ) on a different piece of fic i received the response "Thank you very, very much for your detailed and insightful feedback!" Given how much (lengthy, detailed) feedback i've sent these past few months and heard no reply from, i think i was owed some karma.

Over on Blood Sings, my Hansel&Gretel fic has more than twice as many reads than my Simon/River, and there is still little love for Julia/Justine (though it is slowly accumulating reads).

Should Playboy thank MutantEnemy? (And what's up with June?) I bought Charisma issue last year and, um, might need to buy June. [Bai Ling] Okay, the uber exoticization is a problem (as

viciouswishes points out) but still, hot. She was in The Crow? Clearly i need to rewatch. And i played around and made icons from the photoshoot.

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Elizabeth (the delinquent, ecumenical)

May 2025

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Style: Adjustable Gradient for Bannering by branchandroot

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burning like matchsticks in the face of the darkness

when faced with my demons I clothe them and feed them

Entries tagged with smith: commencement

I also just saw the revamped Smith College website for the first time...

"This is my home, the country where my heart is [...] But other lands have sunlight too and clover..

"I'm willin' to make a deal..."

that updatey thing [uber-long per usual]

that really long update you all knew was coming

win at life

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May 2025

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