Ah, another fun filled four day excursion to the wilds of Wilmington, NC. This time the trip was less for the usual relaxation and bar hopping. You see, this trip was for the purpose of seeing good friend Dennis get his ceremonial sheepskin for time served at UNC Wilmington.
The trip had originally been planned as a two man outing, with myself and my friend Jesse heading down but that changed in the hour before we left when Big Truck (a.k.a. Brian) decided he would make the trip with us. The drive itself was nothing out of the ordinary. In fact, there wasn’t even as much as a traffic jam in the whole distance.
Friday was spent doing things like playing basketball and welcoming the arrival of Dennis’ other friend Jay, who I personally had not hung out with in a few years. That evening we hit the downtown of Wilmington with Dennis and his current “friend” Emily having issues during the night and Dennis doing a fair share of drinking. As for myself, I had drank enough to tire me out and nodded off once or twice during the evening, so when we finally got back to Dennis’ place I caught up on my sleep without delay.
Saturday morning started way too bright and early in my opinion, but most of the world has a strange sickness and likes to get up before 10 am. The graduation ceremony itself started at 9:45 but we showed up a casual 45 minutes later, but still in time to see Dennis get his name called. Processions were held in the basketball arena and we could see everything from the upper deck seats we had. Of course, this was only half of the pomp and circumstance. UNCW also had a second mini-ceremony on the departmental level where people could meet and greet with the professors and where cookies and Tang were served.
Of course cookies and Tang aren’t proper nutritional sustenance. That was taken care of by the graduation lunch that Dennis’ parents threw for him down at the Blue Water Grill; a place Dennis used to work at. There the 11 of us in attendance gorged ourselves on fine American cuisine and a fair share of drinks. Of course when we started ordering we thought we were paying for our own meals, hence the reason we were so liberal with the alcohol.
That evening we hit the downtown once again, this time staggering our time out in a number of bars and with each passing one Dennis became a bit more..um, celebratory. By the time we were kicked out of the last bar of the night Dennis was in rare form. He even began parodying an Expedia commercial:
“Who graduated?” (Pointing to self) “This guy!”
From then on things just went from bad to worse for Dennis’ sobriety. He was subject to usual kind of childish pranks that drunk college kids do to one another in honor of his graduation, and yes there are photos to blackmail him with as well. ^_^
Sunday was the getaway day and we left somewhat earlier than usual. Mother nature decided to dump a weeks worth of rain on the entire east coast so our trip was a wet one. Brian took the first shift driving and due to rain and traffic missed the turn to hop onto 95 north, so that added a little time to the trip, but we still managed to get home somewhat early in the evening. All in all a grand old trip.
Dennis is planning to stay in the Wilmington area for a while, attempting to do some actual work with his degree before pursuing his masters elsewhere. The author wishes him the best on his future endeavors and will be sure to drop by every now and again. ^_^
Tags: Personal
Congrats to Mr. Smith on a completed phase of his collegiate endeavors. Looking back you start to think “that wasn’t so bad” and even start to consider continuing. I hope you do. It’s a path well worth travelling.