(slidshows lost in transition)
Well, a little bit of time has passed since graduation, but I’ve finally gotten all the photos collected and posted…
On July 11th I walked in the UW graduation ceremony to get my Ph.D.! I don’t really have it yet because I defend on 8/9/2005, but it was fun to go through the ceremony anyway. Nate, Andrea, Grace, Don and Rita were able to make it out to visit for the event and we had a fun time – until I checked into the hospital.
The first day that everyone was in Seattle we took a ferry boat to Bainbridge Island, an island in the San Juans, and walked around a cute little town named Winslow. It was a nice relaxing trip. When we came back to downtown Seattle (where the ferry landing was) we found out that the mini-van we were renting had a flat tire. So after we sic’ed Andrea on the rental car company we walked up to Pike Place market and did some shopping and visited the first Starbuck’s. Here is a slideshow of that trip. Later that night we went out to eat at a Native American themed restaurant called “Ivar’s Salmon House”. After dinner we walked to nice park called GasWork’s park. Here is a slideshow of that event.
The next day was graduation. It started with a departmental ceremony in which my advisor “hooded” me. That was followed by a reception in our departmental building. Here is a slideshow of that.
Then after the reception was the big University-wide ceremony. I walked with my friend Gerome who was wearing a lei that his friend gave him. It was fun to be part of such a big event. Gerome and I were seated in the very front row. But about 20 minutes into the ceremony it started to downpour. Ponchos were broken out and all kinds of mayhem ensued. The speaker, former Treasury Secretary Robert Ruben, tried hard to talk about risk management, but was upstaged by the downpour. Here are photos of that event.
After dinner that night, there was a special ceremony back at our house in which I was given an official Professor’s kit. It was a bit of a roast. Here are some photos of that event.
The next day we went to Capitol Hill to get donuts from a local bakery and walk around a trendy street. That was when I started feeling really sick. The men took the kids to a playground and before too long my stomach was hurting really badly. I waited at the playground while they went to get the car and when the car showed up, I got in and then passed out. Sandy and my mom were pretty freaked out because they didn’t know what was going on. They thought it might be a heart attack or something, but the passing out was just from the stomach pain. Anyway, they called the paramedics who revived me and stabilized me on oxygen. Then I was whisked off to the emergency room. When I got there I passed out again. I spent the rest of the day and early evening getting all kinds of tests and a CT scan. Although it took me about a week and a half to recover I think it was just a really bad stomach flu combined with dehydration. Sorry no pictures of that! Anyway, we’re doing better now and keeping a water bottle handy at all times.