Category: life

where everything else happens

Christopher Graduates!

Christopher graduated from high school tonight, June 10th 2008.

It was held at the football stadium at Arlington High School, and thankfully the rains ceased for a few hours for the event to pass. Of course as soon as it concluded, the drizzle started again. We’re all very happy.

We started the evening with a dinner at La Hacienda. Then we dropped Chris off at the school as he had to be there an hour before.

Above: Chris puts on the gown.

Above: Sue watches as the cap goes on.

The actual ceremony took place with a stadium full of parents and relatives of all the students. The parking lot was overflowed and we ended up far away. We did a poor job of logistics and ended up pretty far from Chris’ spot in the ceremony. I brought my telephoto lens and managed to pick him out of the crowd:

Above: Chris enters the stadium.

Above: Where’s Waldo?

Above: Chris hands his name to the reader.

…and walks towards the stage.

Of course my photos of him on the stage are blurry and somebody walked right in front of me right about that time as well(!)

Oh well.

There was music and of course boring speeches… it wrapped up with some youthful exuberance:

We finally found each other down on the field after it was all over and got a group shot:

One down, one to go!

A Gentleman and a Scholar!

Well, at least a Scholar. 😉

Chris' Evergreen State Scholarship

Last night Christopher & I went to the Seattle Mariner’s incredibly expensive stadium** for a welcome reception and event for new students at Evergreen State, his chosen school. There was no game going on, so it was weird to be in this giant empty stadium with just 150 or so people. We were served finger foods in the 1st base lounge on the 200 level. They had tables and chairs, and a podium set up. Chris & I grabbed a primo spot in some big comfy chairs as we were a bit early. Staff & faculty were there to speak with us. Before that happened the Dean of Admission brought nine students up to the front (as soon as I counted nine standing I figured a baseball joke was coming… and sure enough…) he announced that these students had been picked as the starting lineup for the next home game. He passed our Mariner’s caps to them all and asked if there were any left-handers, and Chris raised his hand in confirmation and was tossed a ball, and told he’d be on the mound pitching. Then he revealed the real reason why these kids were up in front of the crowd: They were the recipients of Scholarships!

Great news for a parent about to start writing big checks for an education!

Congrats Chris!

We drove home in a blinding blizzard(!) around 9pm. Visibility was so bad that I-5 was slowed to about 35 MPH. Really weird weather this “spring”… We awoke to big fat flakes falling here at home, so I decided to bow out of the Seattle Jaguar Club’s Spring Rally. I don’t know if they went ahead with it, or if it has been rescheduled. Hopefully the warm weather (it was 80°F a week ago today!) will return next week in time for the Tulip Rallye up in the Skagit Valley. I really hope so.

**(If the “naming rights” big corporation/Insurance company wants me to name them in conjunction with the stadium please have their marketing department contact me for payment details)

Shifting Gears in my reading habits…

I finished Legacy of Ashes: The History of the CIA (Thanks John W!) last weekend. A truly fascinating read. I grazed through the Goolsbee bookshelves to grab something else and my eyes fell upon something I hadn’t read in years (since it came out in the 80s actually!) … I instinctively grabbed it and shoved it in my pocket as I drove off to work one morning. It is Douglas Adams’ Life, The Universe and Everything.

I only started reading it yesterday, and I’m already halfway through. I LOVE Adams’ writing style. It is wonderfully entertaining to read. I’m inspired by him, truly. I love to write and wish I could write half as well as Douglas Adams. I’d love to be able to somehow channel Adams & Eagan when I write my rally reports and stories. While I’m usually confident in my photography, I know my writing is nowhere near these two greats. I guess I’ll just keep trying.

A thoroughly enjoyable diversion from my usual serious reading.

As a side note, I actually one day found myself standing next to Douglas Adams. I can not really claim to have met him, though we exchanged exactly four words. (mind you that was far more than my other New York/Celebrity encounter – the infamous William Fucking Shatner!) I was at Macworld Expo in New York City in July of 2000. I was scheduled to speak at the MacIT conference later that week (with Ron Marx and John Welch) and my speaker badge afforded an AMAZING seat at the Steve Jobs Keynote. I was in the sixth row. This was the famous G4 Cube/no-button mouse/free mouse Keynote. After the speech concluded most of the attendees stampeded the exits like Wildebeests lurching from a Crocodile to collect their free mouse. However the real geeks clamored to the front of the stage to get photos of the newly announced product. Freebies can wait… there are Cubes to undress with our eyes!

crush

Since I was sitting right up at the front, I ambled up there too. I stood back a bit to have a look at the Cube (a truly elegant machine, I still have one on my desk at work!) and noted a rather tall man at my right elbow wedged between me and my friend Chris Kilbourn. “Quite nice” I said to him nodding at the machine. “mmm Yes” he replied, his eyes still glued in techno-lust at the gleaming Cube. I took a second glance and recognized him as Adams! I shot a photo – and despite look of this shot, it wasn’t as stalkerish as it appears… there were literally hundreds of people in a huge semi-circle, with flashes going off like crazy.

Douglas Adams

Tragically, within a year, he was dead. 🙁

I introduced my sons to his genius not long after, and this copy I grabbed belongs to my youngest son Nick. Next up will have to be “So Long and Thanks for all the Fish!”…