CJ, College Graduate

 

POMP AND CIRCUMSTANCE:  Not necessarily bright, but very early on June 9, we piled into the car and headed south on I-5 toward the Tacoma Dome, site of CJ's graduation from the University of Washington - Tacoma. 

He had to be there at 8, so we dropped him off, scored nearby street parking, and then went and stood in line in a light rain for a half hour before they opened Dome doors to guests.

About 9:30 a.m. the graduates began to file in. It took a full half hour for the seating to happen. Can you spot CJ in the middle of the photo below, holding up his program?

Here's a cell phone closeup of the graduate.

Before the ceremony, there were rotating photos on the big screens. CJ had texted me a "backstage" photo of Harry the Husky and him, so I posted it to social media with the hashtag #UWTgrad and it made it into the rotation.

Here's an 'action shot' of CJ getting scanned in to cross the stage. Each grad had a QR code that they scanned, and then a pre-recorded voice announced their name.

All of my shots of CJ actually crossing the stage are blurry. :/ It was very dark in the Dome, and my camera wasn't up to the task. Case in point: Here's a shot of him walking in front of us, after he came off the stage.

After about three hours, all the grads had crossed the stage (some 1,400, I think), and they were told to move their tassels to the other side of their caps.

After commencement, we headed back to our place, checked in on the dogs and picked up G&G. We then headed to the Seattle Waterfront - specifically Wing Dome, for a little celebratory lunch. (We had gone to this same Wing Dome when CJ graduated from South Seattle College with his AA a couple years back.)

Back at home, CJ enjoyed both of his cakes, including this one from Bundt Cakes. 

We took the cap off the cake and donned it on CJ's merpug for fun.

Speaking of dogs, on our daily  'to do' whiteboard, Annabelle drew CJ a special cartoon. It marked the re-emergence of a series she used to do years ago, Shar-pei a Day. As always, the aloof Shar-pei wasn't exactly effusive in his praise.

All in all a long day, the culmination of a lot of years of hard work and stick-to-it-iveness. Congrats to CJ for crossing this particular finish line. We all look forward to what is next.