A Little Late now, but... I graduated and stuff too!

Partly because I just read Tyler's post and partly because I just watched the last ever episode of the Office, I decided to make a semi-sentimental post about graduation stuff. Here goes nothing. 

Graduation felt pretty weird, I will say that for sure. Standing around with folks from my department in our gowns and stuff I found myself snapping a couple of random pictures on my phone before we marched in just because it felt so surreal. 

Here's a picture of Dave. Hi Dave!

Anyways, my whole family came up for the graduation marathon (literally an entire day full of stuff). Even my grandmother was able to make it which was totally awesome because she is 90 and not only was it awesome to have her there but it was a huge milestone for her personally. Lawrence Bender, the guy who produced a bunch of Quentin Tarantino films (including pulp fiction and Django) was the speaker at our ceremony which was kinda cool. There was a ceremony in the morning where us engineer types got fancy metals because everyone has to have additional bling at graduation, that's just standard now. There was also a luncheon for the ECE department where we were awarded 3rd place for our senior project, wahoo! We even got $50. Nice. 

The one weird thing about graduation was that after the ceremony, I walked out and didn't realize that it was the last time I would see a lot of folks. So, I just straight up forgot to say any good-byes what so ever. Too bad really, a couple of the guys are older and have families so my chances of running into them is pretty damn small. Most people I will see though because Maine.

After that was all over, my folks left and I stuck around Orono. Thinking something might happen, it actually didn't... so I ordered a pizza and fell asleep. Graduating is tiring. The next day our friend Asa had a grad party out at his place on Schoodic Lake where he grew up. Just a small gathering of friends and family out in the middle of nowhere Maine.

Looks kind of like a hobbit house, am I right?

Asa's dad also had a beautiful timber frame garage/workshop he built where we stayed for the night. There was lots of great good, beer and laughing. It was a great time. 

Fast forward a week or so and I almost kinda sorta have a place to live. After looking at about half a dozen places (and a bazillion craigslist ads) in southern Maine I finally found one that appears to work. I definitely saw some weird stuff and a lady who is wayyyy too into her dogs. Let this also be a lesson to you, just because there is an ad on craigslist does NOT mean the person will respond to you. Also, just straight up call someone if you find an ad you like. Do not fiddle around with e-mailing them, rely on e-mail only as an additional route to contact the person. I found this out the hard way. 

I'll be living in Westbrook with two girls, both recent graduates who are working in the area. The place is pretty nice and it's actually brand new, we're the first people that will be living there. The girls have been there for a few months and needed a new roommate. It's only a few miles from work, which is sweet but it is further from Portland than I was initially intending on. Anyways, I'm pumped about it and it technically even has a garage.... but right now they just park in it. I'm not saying anything yet, but hopefully I'll slowly convince them to hand the garage over to me. It's kinda small though so maybe not but we'll see. The whole finding a place thing is MUCH easier if you already have roommates by the way. Just word of advice on that. 

Now I'm cleaning out my room at home and forcing myself to throw away junk that I've kept for umpteen years. Question. What is a 22 year old supposed to do with a bunch of die-cast model cars? Honestly. They're like 10+ years old and have been on display (collecting dust) in my room since then. They aren't valuable enough to sell, they aren't cool enough to give away and they're awkward and fragile enough to be a pain in the arse. Never buy your kids die cast models man. Just don't do it. I have found some pretty cool stuff and there are a couple of sweet toys that I am having a hard time parting with. Yes, I am looking at you Super Armatron. That thing is so cool, I even took it apart one time and it's all mechanical. The joysticks are actually on linkages that shift gears to make the arm change position and every joint is just on a slipping clutch thing so when you get to the end of its range of motion the whole arm just shakes and rattles while it slips.

SO YEAH. Oh, my sister got engaged too. Hooray! Man, that life thing... that happens quickly. Anyways, with the summer now officially in full swing and a new life chapter emerging, I will make a better effort to blog my exploits with you gents. Now, to southern Maine and beyond!