My first blog as an alumna (thanks Chris) of the University of Denver! What an exciting weekend. It still feels kind of surreal that I won't have another class, homework, lab, anything for a whole year. When I deleted all my old school stuff off my computer, it felt very liberating. I also threw out many of my papers, but I still need to go through my notebooks and textbooks and figure out what to get rid of.
The weekend started on Friday with lunch with my co-workers. They wanted to take me out to celebrate my graduation, and my co-worker/mentor/best work friend Laura to celebrate her last day here, and the beginning of her MD/PhD program at CU. Soon after lunch, I met up with Daniel and my Dad who had just driven our new car from Nicole's apartment in Columbus all the way here to Denver in 3 days. It was great to see him again, and I was so grateful that he did that for us. Dad and I went grocery shopping to get supplies for dinner. Around 2:30pm, Daniel's parents showed up at our house in their rental car. We showed them around our (their) house and they were very impressed with how clean and well-kept it was- especially the yard. All that yard work last week paid off! A few hours later, my grandparents, Aunt and Uncle, and mom showed up. They took 2 days to drive from Phoenix to Denver. We promptly showed them around the house (Grandma and Grandpa are the only ones who have never seen the house). Then we started dinner. Daniel had the brilliant idea to have every person make their own personal pizzas. He even made a bunch of pizza dough the night before so everyone could toss their dough and make it into a pie shape, then top it with whatever they wanted to. I thought this would be a big mess, but everyone loved it. Score one for Daniel. After taking a sub-set of the family on an emergency trip to Target (everything takes 5 times longer with people over 50!) we drove to the airport to pick up the last of our crew, my sister. When she came back my Mom gave out the first graduation gift- a beautiful quilt for Daniel. She and my sister spent hours measuring, cutting, and sewing to create a queen-size quilt out of Daniel's old DU and Theta Chi T-shirts. It was a one-of-a-kind gift and Daniel loved it. He was speechless. He knew they were making it, because he packaged up all his old shirts. We brought them a box of 20-something T-shirts last winter and they've been working on it ever since. Every time I look at it, I remember where each shirt came from and remember all the great times we had while Daniel was wearing them. Such fantastic memories all put together into one blanket. I also got to open one of my gifts- a brand new kindle! I gave my old one to my Dad. The new one is way better- lighter, smaller, better resolution, longer battery…. I love it. We all said goodnight because we had to be up bright and early the next morning.
I woke up at 5:30am and I wasn't even tired! I was so excited for the day ahead. We picked up the family at the hotel and had breakfast on campus. We took a million pictures that turned out fantastic and then Daniel and I had to assemble for the big ceremony. We assembled in a small gym and with 900 or so graduates, it was crowded, hot, and claustrophobic in there. It was fun to see all of our friends all dressed up though. We were all so excited. The processional in was my favorite part. Coming into the arena, seeing thousands of people cheering, surrounded by my friends and classmates from the last 4 years. I felt very proud. I thought the speaker was terrible. He lost his place many times and was so old his voice shook. But everyone else seemed to like his speech. I couldn't find my family or Daniel until halfway through the ceremony when Daniel stood up to get in line to receive his diploma. We waved and I blew a kiss to him. He pointed out the family and when we finally made eye contact, they were so excited. I waved and waved until Grandpa finally noticed me too. When it was my turn to receive my diploma, I really wanted to express my gratitude to the chancellor. He shook everyone's hand and said "Congratulations, Ms. Burton" when I took my diploma cover from him. The second half of the name-reading seemed interminable. Name after name…. The whole ceremony took less than 4 hours so I guess it wasn't that long. Afterwards, we met up outside and had orange guava champagne (once again, this is what my $40K a year tuition is paying for). The whole family went out to lunch and we discussed our impressions of the ceremony.
After lunch most of the family went back to the hotel while the Rosens, me, my mom, and Nicole went to Costco to get food for our party that evening. I was feeling pretty tired by this point, but I pushed through. We prepared all the food and by 5pm we had a chance to sit down. The family came over around 6pm and then it was time to open presents! I got a beautiful pearl necklace from my grandparents. They bought it in Spain in 1994 when they were there. Grandma actually gave it to her mother, my great grandmother. When she passed away in 2005, Grandma got them back and now she passed them on to me. Instantly I knew I wanted to wear them at the wedding. They will look beautiful with my dress. Then I opened the gift from George and Shirley and they were the most beautiful pearl earrings I have ever seen in my life. Again- I knew instantly I wanted to wear them for my wedding. I put them on and I looked so sophisticated. Everyone loved them on me. I wore them the rest of the day, and then packaged them up. I won't wear them again until December 4!
Okay, this blog is getting long, but I don't want to forget anything! I'll finish later.
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