My Graduation Reception

Starbucks

At 8:30 AM, we drove to the Courtyard by Marriott to meet Raul and Lucy before heading to the Kokomo Opalescent Glass factory. While waiting in the lobby, I heard a familiar voice coming from the dining area, a voice I recognized as being a sports announcer or commentator on 1350 AM in Kokomo. I figured that he was just having breakfast, but as it turned out he was doing a live radio broadcast with coaches of some of the area basketball teams. I verified this by going through the front doors to where Melissa was parked directly outside and turning on the radio to hear the live broadcast. I jokingly told Melissa, “Tell me if you hear a loud sneeze when I head back in.” When Raul and Lucy came down, we headed in separate vehicles to Starbucks where I got a medium-sized Raspberry Mocha Latte. With caffeine in hand, we drove to the KOG for our tour.

Kokomo Opalescent Glass Tour

Lindsey was our capable tour guide, and she did an excellent job. I used this opportunity to mainly take pictures of unusual objects, such as old carts that had been used to haul glass probably since the early 1900s. After the tour, Melissa and Little Raul headed back to prepare lunch while I stayed behind in the gift show with Raul and Lucy. After a while, I headed outside to take pictures of the abandoned Continental Steel site with its broken windows and rusty water tower. It was a good feeling to have the emotional freedom to spend time taking creative pictures without feeling guilty that I’m not working on my dissertation. Back at the gift shop, Lucy asked me to show her some glass gift that Melissa would like, but I couldn’t find anything that I thought would strike her fancy. Instead, I suggested that they do something that related to learning Mandarin Chinese, or that related to Chinese culture, etc. We went the apartment and had the superb butternut squash soup that Melissa made. You can check out pictures of the tour at http://community.webshots.com/user/RAMosley.

Setup for the Reception

It took us a couple of hours to setup for the reception. Before we headed over to the club house, Lucy and Raul encouraged Melissa to go get her hair done, something she had voiced a desire for a few times throughout the afternoon. So, she finally got an appointment at Solutions, and she headed there as Raul, Lucy, Raul Matthew, and I headed over to the club house to set things up. The first thing we did was to rearrange the furniture in accordance with the schematic Melissa handed me. In about 45 minutes or so, we had rearranged the place, which basically involved reversing the order of the room. We also set up the coffee pots, plugged in the crock pot, laid out the chips and trail mix, etc. When the Byroms showed up with my mom, we had a ton of food and party supplies to unload from the Suburban. After about an hour of unloading and organizing, the place was looking functional again. It was great to see my mom again. My mom helped Mrs. Bryom set up the cake area while Raul and Lucy worked together in the kitchen to wash the fruit and prepare the veggie trays. Once things were mainly in place, I asked Mr. Byrom to drive me back to our apartment so that I could get changed and pick up a few items. I changed into my black outfit with my gold tie, and we headed back to the club house.

The Reception

Melissa began by presenting me with a large, thin package to unwrap, and this turned out to be a poem she wrote entitled, “Twas the day of graduation.” She read this aloud to us all with a performance that impressed everyone and made several people ask, “Who’s the one with the doctorate in communication?” She did a great job and made it through without crying, which she had been concerned about. She then presented me with a spectacular scrapbook that chronicled our life together since the fall of 1999 when we started the doctoral program. The cover page was one of her word pictures that spelled out “Doctor Raul Mosley” in the shape of a college graduate. I got several other great gifts from the rest of the family, but I won't mention them here because they might not want that. Thanks to all of you nonetheless!

People basically came to the reception in waves. First, there was family. Then, members of First Baptist Church of Russiaville showed up. Then Mike Knoerzer and his family came during the presentation of gifts. At 6:44, I realized for the first time that none of my students had come, despite the fact that 7 had indicated on facebook.com that they were coming and another 33 showed that they might be coming. Closer to 7:15ish, Don and Jennifer Sedberry showed up, followed by Faith Rose Scales, and later by Lori Cardwell.

Clean-Up

I rearranged the furniture by myself this time to the best of my memory, and it turned out well, but was different from the original arrangement. Mr. Byrom took me back to the apartment where I changed into jeans and a sweater and I also picked up the Dyson vacuum. The most time consuming part seemed to be loading all of the stuff back into the Suburban and also into the back of Raul and Lucy’s rental SUV. We also delivered a few loads to our apartment. And, I delivered a few loads of trash to the more than full garbage dumpster. My mom left with the Byroms from the club house to head back to the hotel, and Raul and Lucy dropped Melissa, Little Raul, and me off back at the apartment. After we were alone, Melissa gave me a personal tour of the scrapbook she created. Very touching.

You can check out pictures of the reception at http://community.webshots.com/user/RAMosley.