More graduation blues

In a twenty-eight hour period this weekend I endured four graduations. Only one was today. Thank God. By the time we were finished, I was wiped out despite the fact that it's not demanding work. It's more the drudgery and long days. Yes, yes, your lives are beginning, you were the best class, you'll never forget one another, etc. Can we get things moving so I can go home?

Fortunately the commencement marathon ends with the one where I know some of the graduates. It doesn't make the ceremony go any faster, but it helps keep what little interest I have remaining. Plus, the college graduation has a more dignified and traditional feel than the cookie cutter high school celebrations.

How do I pass the time? There's a lot of shooting the breeze with my co-worker about how our jobs are pretty good except for these long, punishing days, particularly when all the graduations fall on the same weekend. When the diplomas start getting handed out at the high school ceremonies, I've typically slid into the amphitheater's back stage lounge and watched some television. (Usually it's too hot and humid to hang around outside.) This year I wised up and brought the newspaper and a book, although I wish I'd brought more after polishing off my reading material with a third graduation to spare.

My obligation to work these events, coupled with the attendant boredom and physical weariness, color my opinion of these rites of passage. (I collapsed on the futon when I got home late this afternoon.) I don't begrudge those who enjoy them the pleasure they get. Donna's entry provides a really sweet and heartfelt alternative to my bilious take. Let me reiterate that my dislike for graduations has nothing to do with what they mean for everyone else but what they mean to me: extremely long days doing something as compelling as watching paint dry.

On top of that, my bigger beef is with the high school commencements, the beats and sentiments of which I practically know by heart despite whatever novel spin the presenters think they are providing in their speeches. Still, I'll take the sappy clichés over the droning school district and school board speakers, who seem to forget that the graduations are already long enough without them going on and on and on.

I've started another dishcloth, and I need to make a baby sock to accompany the more respectable one I knitted Friday. Where do I go from here? I will probably follow Donna's lead and make something for the Red Scarf Project, and I suppose it's time to attempt socks for myself. Any other suggestions?