Month: May 2015

Graduation Weekend – Sunday

Sunday, May 10, 2015

Vacating the Dorm

Marina left last night, so the rest of us redezvous with Ivi to clear out her dorm room and load the van.  Somehow, miraculously, it all fits inside, but we still have a big shopping stop to make at Trader Joe’s.

 

 

Shandong

Lunch finds us at Shandong in the Hollywood District (3724 NE Broadway St, Portland, OR 97232 — this is an address you will want to know).  Outstanding meal; easily worth a future visit.  

Leaving Town

Ivi takes the helm.  Incredibly, we also load three Trader Joe shopping bags full of goodies into the overstuffed vehicle. We cruise past some familiar Portland sights and hit the road.

 

 

Return Trip

Ivi insists on driving the distance, but time passes quickly, playing games invented by Nik and just talking.  Windshield photography again comes into play.  We arrive well before dark.

 

 

Graduation Weekend – Saturday

English Department Reception

The department hosts an excellent brunch, where we get to meet several of Ivi’s professors and advisors.  Each has much to say about Ivi, and we will not repeat it here.  We also hear an interesting spiel by one of the department faculty members, who is a trustee or an official for the Ralph Ellison estate collection of literature or something like that.  

Around Campus

Fighting the heat and crazy midday sun-shadow interplay, we spend a good deal of time walking about and getting in some good conversation.   We learn that Larkin will be able to drop in!  (Photos below bracket both sides of the commencement time, and some include Larkin, who actually only appeared just minutes before commencement … commenced.)

Commencement

Lucky to secure seating in the shaded part of the stadium, we grind it out for 2.5 or 3 hours.  Nothing compared to what the graduates must have endured in the open sun.  But the time passed with some good speech-making and the where’s-waldo exercise of keeping our eyes on the antics or non-antics of Ivi and her classmates.  (I was so distant from where Ivi was seated that I could hardly see her face or any details, but aimed at max zoom and shot in burst mode.)

Apres-Commencement

A cliche-avoiding English major would never say such a thing, but there was a palpable sense of relief throughout after the graduates were dispersed to various venues around campus.  We sneaked into the Frank Manor House, discovering a quiet and cool room to relax and chat.

Downtown Portland

We determined to eat dinner downtown, so we drove through intense traffic (where cap-and-gowned grads blew past us on bicycles, and where I sneaked a no-look, over-the-shoulder shot of the back seat occupants, some legal, some not).  Stashing the vehicle at the park blocks, we marched off under the guidance of Larkin’s GPS.  Not finding the intended restaurant (or was it closed? I never was certain), we found a Plan-B Mexican restaurant known to Ivi.  Good times, good food, and a sneak peak into its kitchen.

Larkin Departs

Almost no sooner than she appears, she must leave.  

 

Graduation Weekend – Friday

Going

An early morning departure gets us into Portland before noon, but parking spaces are in short supply on the Lewis & Clark campus.  

 

 

Arrival at L&C Holmes Hall

Finally we make contact with Ivi, who is putting the finishing touches on her custom/self-made dress.  We join Ivi and her visiting friend, Marina (also graduating from OSU in a few weeks), in the dorm where they have made a stab at packing it all up.

 

 

Honors Convocation

After we eat the sandwiches found in our cooler, Ivi heads off to prepare for the afternoon honors awardees’ event at the Agnes Flanagan Chapel.   Later on, the rest of us join the audience there for the proceedings.  This is to be the beginning of my weekend-long exercise in the arcane specialty of photography of subjects’ backs.

 

 

Hotel

Pretty much exhausted, we check into our nearby hotel.  Nik revs up a computer to take an online test, and we are soon all asleep.

 

 

rDay Fifty

Despite considerable reluctance to be photographed, Kim and Ivi invite me along on a plant nursery shopping outing for succulents and cacti.

Kim heroically saved the day when an elderly woman drove over the leash of a dog and psychologically froze in place, unable to take action.  The leash was affixed to a truck at the side of a driveway but it was long enough to extend across the entire width, so of course the dog went to the opposite side of the road, when the hapless lady drove over the extended leash, trapped under her self-stalled car, with the dog unable to retreat.  But Kim calmed the dog and the woman in turn, unlatching the leash from the truck so that the latter’s car could pass over and leave.  The dog’s owner came upon the scene later.  Should have done video to document the proper sequence, but it was over in a couple of moments.

 

 

Dennis and Mt. Baldy

Younger (by 20 months) brother Dennis sends me this picture documenting some of his past weekend.

Mt Baldy 10He says:

I was in a group of five, four men and one woman.  That trail is steep–4,000 ft. elevation gain in 4-1/2 miles, and the last half mile or so is SERIOUSLY steep, the kind that has you gasping for air (I realize not everybody considers that fun) and the strong separating themselves from the weak.  The strong in this case being the woman, who beat all the macho men to the summit.  Although the oldest of the group, I managed to get there in 3rd place.  This is not to imply that competition was the whole point!