The UMD English Department had its commencement exercises yesterday. Although I earned my Ph.D. last summer, I decided to stop off here on my way to Manchester so that I could “officially” receive my degree as part of the exercises. L, whose successful dissertation defense took place earlier this semester, also took part. Attending the ceremony gave me a satisfying sense of closure to my education…at least the part of it that leads to degrees.

Each of my parents made the trip from Georgia, and I’m very glad that they did. However, for the first time, my family had to deal with the post-divorce awkwardness that comes with significant life events you want your family to attend. My parents divorced less than two years ago, after almost forty years of marriage, and understandably did not want to be around each other. I couldn’t help but feel like I should have done a better job of coordinating things so that I could spend time with each of them. On the other hand, my friend KB says she’d be happy to deliver a lecture on how adults need to behave like adults based on her twenty-three years of post-divorce experience.

The university-wide graduation took place on Thursday night at the Comcast Center, but we decided to skip the cattle call and eat at Franklin’s with Jason & Lisa and Mike & Jenna.

Frankly, we’re eating our way through Maryland. After Thursday’s ceremony, we had lunch at Tiffin, reviewed
here in the Washingtonian. Then Thursday night, we had Burmese food at Mandalay, reviewed here. Kristin and Phil had breakfast with us at Plato’s diner this morning. Pizza at MITH with a whole bunch of people, including Matt. Tonight, dinner at Sushi King, a much better restaurant than its name would suggest, with KB in Columbia. By the way, KB is walking in the Two-Day Colon Cancer March in October. If you’d like to sponsor her, email me and I’ll put you in touch with her.

It’s been great to see everyone after almost 10 months away. I’m happy to be in Kansas City, now, but I miss friends and familiar places in Maryland.