The Joy of Matriculation

May 13

Meg's graduation day! Yay, Meg, proud holder of a Bachelor's degree in Social Work! The ceremony was, of course, deadly boring. For most of it I read Steve Brust's Jhereg, which I'm enjoying greatly (Thanks, Timprov and M'ris!). I watched when Meg went across the stage though, of course. She had the best hat of all, by far-- she decorated it with golden streamers and ribbons. When the Chancellor shook her hand, he whispered "Nice hat." She got lots of compliments, so that made her graduation that much more happy-making. I had lunch with her family, and then she dumped me at Espresso News while they went to the mall. I had a chance to read a couple of journals and check e-mail-- Fair M'ris, I hope your back is better soon! Espresso closed at 3 o'clock, though (they do that on Sundays), so I didn't have a chance to answer much e-mail at all. Sigh.

I sat outside and finished Marriage of the Sticks. Hmm. I really liked the first two-thirds, maybe even the first three-quarters, of this book… but it kind of goes wacky at the end, and I didn't like it as much. I was expected to believe certain things about the characters that I wasn't prepared to believe, and some threads just drifted away, or were tied up all-too neatly. But the book is generally brilliant in its treatment of relationships. Carroll is a master at writing about the small things in romantic relationships-- he observes and chooses details with a poet's eye. So, my Carroll score so far-- Land of Laughs, brilliant; Marriage of the Sticks, very engaging but ultimately annoying; and A Child Across the Sky, uneven but so creepy and luminous in places that it's worth reading. I've got a lot of Carroll left to read…

Meg picked me up after her family left, and we spent the afternoon frolicking. For dinner we joined my old poetry prof Jay Wentworth, and his wonderful wife Nancy, for dinner. Such good talk! Jay and Nancy have two kids in New York (one at Juliard, one at the Manhattan School of Music), so they had lots of stories and advice-- as well as envy for Meg, since she gets to live right in the midst of the city. I talked about poetry and folklore; Meg talked about her recent social work experiences, and her excitement about moving; Jay talked about the many books and projects he's working on; Nancy talked about her recent travels in Korea and Thailand. They're such brilliant people, so cool-- I'm glad to have them in my life.

Then we drove to Meg's house in Kernersville (home of movie-buff cops, as you might recall). We unpacked the car, talked for a while… and here we are.

Good night, fair ones. I'm having a delicious vacation.