Prepping for the Gard ceremony

As mentioned weeks ago, I received a series of three different emails (on the same day) in early April from my graduate school program director regarding graduation, the ceremony, grad announcements, etc.

One of the emails had a link to the U/Saint Thomas bookstore, where you could order your cap/gown, grad announcements, thank you cards, address labels, etc., along with the option to order frames for your diploma. I went out to the bookstore website and looked at them, they were actually very nice, but just a bit too expensive for me (being in the $150-250 range), since I think frames really don’t need to cost that much.

Last week, I went to the campus bookstore to pick up my cap and gown and had the opportunity to “peruse” these diploma frames from a few feet away. What I hadn’t notice while looking on the website, was the fact that frames for Master degree diplomas were approximately two (or even three times) the size of a regular frame for the usual 8×11 undergrad diploma. I mean, they are HUGE, I’m guessing at least 16×20, but probably more like 20×24.

I would be just a tad embarrassed to have one of these huge frames hanging on my (home) office wall. I don’t know the size of the actual diploma (and won’t know until they mail it out to me in about “6-8 weeks”), but I think we’ll just settle on the standard size frame from Michaels (which will take me a couple of years to actually buy, and then another three years to hang on the wall – procrastination is my middle name, ya know.)

😱🖼🙄


There are (apparently) three grad ceremonies tomorrow: one for the undergrads, another for the law school grads, and, finally, one for the “regular” Master degree graduates. The undergrad ceremony is in the afternoon, the law school ceremony is in the evening. The graduate ceremony that I’ll be attending, is in the morning.

My worse fear, for the last few weeks, is sleeping thru my alarm and missing, or arriving late to my grad ceremony. You see, the ceremony is scheduled to start at 9:30am. BUT, if you’re participating, you need to arrive at the “field house” by 8:30. The parking ramp is a 15-20 minute walk to the field house. The drive to the campus is another thirty minutes. Add ten minutes to get a Panarea Soufflé for breakfast before driving up there, plus the standard twenty mins or so to shower, shave, put on the tie, etc., and, you can see, I’m going to need to get up at the crack of dawn (i.e., 7am, if not even earlier).

I’m deathly afraid of missing my alarm, and running into the field house just as they finish calling the last person’s name.

This is my luck, this is how I roll – it’s always been this way for me.

Fortunately, I was in Marching Band in High School. With the best band director there ever was: Mr. Tom Course.

This great man taught me the only thing I’ve ever remembered from high school:

“On time is Late. Early is on time.”

So, with that in mind, I’ve now set alarms on all of my e-devices (phone, tablet, etc.), even the one on the kitchen stove.

Well, none of that is going to matter.

Since, I’ll be so worried about missing my three alarms, I’ll probably be up all night long.

Staring.

At.

The.

Clock.

Really.

⏲⏰🕰⌛️📣📢🔔
🎓👗
🏡⛪️🏟
🎈🎉🎊🍾

😱🙄😉🤓