So Long, '06

Ahhhhh, summer hours started today, which means that I get off at 4:30 every day and I no longer have to wear a tie. I love it. As a hilarious little summer hours prank, Old Man Winter lashed out this morning with a horrid 36 degree biting wind--ho ho! Thank God I did not check the weather before I left to bike over in one of my summer hours polos, so everyone got to see my nipples when I walked in.

This was commencement weekend, so sadly I had to work. It didn't stop be from partying like a rockstar though, as I was up into the wee hours of the morning Friday and Saturday doing something really awesome and cool that was not watching TV and chatting on IM. Mass on Saturday is pretty easy duty, I just had to be there by 3 and kind of mill around for two hours making sure nothing exploded, while I awkwardly told a sporadic influx of random seniors who apparently somehow know who I am that no, I am not getting my doctorate, I'm just some chump in a robe.

Commencement itself was a little more lengthy, though no more difficult. Every year we have to get there at 10, and every year there is literally nothing to do until 12:30. I grabbed a piece of couch and napped for about 45 minutes, then Jan and I passed a good half an hour making a totally awesome birthday card for one of our coworkers with a freaking sweet drawing of a pirate on the front. Oh man that was a sweet pirate. It's hard to explain what's so funny about getting an office of 40 and 50-somethings to sign a homemade birthday card with things like "Avast!" and "Blow me down, matey!" but I can confirm the comedy is of the pants-crapping variety.

The Commencement itself was a good one. Dave Brubeck was there to play a jazz piece for the departing class called "Traveling Blues". He was pretty impressive. The man is like 86, he could barely speak, and tried to wander off the stage when he was done performing, but he can apparently still play a mean piano. There was also a rather touching Notre Dame moment when Harper Lee was conferred her honorary degree, and all the students stood up and held copies of "To Kill a Mockingbird" aloft:

That is one happy little old lady. Mary McAleese, the President of Ireland, gave the commencement address and she was quite the speaker. The highlight was when she told us that "The Irish spirit is in your commitment, your confidence, your nevergiveupery." which tickles me just way more than it has any right to. I've been telling everyone. Nevergiveupery. Nevergiveupery!! ARE YOU LISTENING TO ME?? Is it funnier than a pirate themed homemade birthday card? I don't know. History will decide. But it was pretty funny.

In extremely awesome news, the sucktitude of having a severely curtailed weekend has been slightly assuaged--nay, wholly negated!--by having a mere two day work week ahead of me. I had previously taken Thursday and Friday off for plans that ended up falling through, and then imagine my dance of joy when I found out that not only do I have the following Monday off for Memorial Day, but my boss is giving the whole office Wednesday off as well as kind of a makeup for having to work this weekend. Sweet Pappy Johnson, I love it. I'm not even going to do anything. I'm going to play some golf, drink some beers, watch a whole lot of TV, and then head home for the weekend to pet the dogs, play with my niece, and hang out with the family.

And drinking some beers reminds me, Animal House mini-reunion, against all odds, is on for the weekend of June 9th, thanks to Goat's surprising and decisive pre-confirmation-that-anyone-else-can-make-it ticket purchase, so if you are in the midwest area and would like to hang out with some 'Tones of yore (and some lesser chumps), I encourage you to join us for revelry, boozeration, and the traditional planning and failure-of-execution of several needlessly complex missions with no chance of success.

Ah! And one more thing, if you have a few minutes definitely watch these. I can't guarantee that you will find them in any way funny...at all...but I pretty much want to Do them. Fuck you, Loggins!