Out of Town for Cap and Gown
While Melissa remained behind in Kokomo to continue her secret work for the upcoming weekend, Raul Matthew and I headed to Follett’s Purdue West bookstore to pick up my cap and gown for graduation. I hadn’t expected to pay anything—silly me—but I’m hoping the $45 I shelled out will be the last expense of my formal education. By this point, I wouldn’t be surprised if I have to pay a fee for my diploma during the graduation ceremony itself!
With cap and gown in hand, we headed to the McDonalds near the Tippecanoe Mall. This was my son’s culinary choice, although I would rather have gone to any of the ethnic restaurants near campus. That’s one thing I miss about being in a more diverse community—the smell of ethnic food. Nonetheless, we headed to McD’s. My son said, “After a good meal we can head to Toys-R-Us.” I’ve never heard “good meal” and McDonalds mentioned in the same sentence, but I guess it’s a matter of perspective. This particular McDonalds had a cool kids section, so we ended up playing foosball and several video games such as dirt bike racing, air hockey, and tennis.
With the “good meal” behind us, we headed to the Barnes and Noble where my relatively new Columbia coat set off the security device at the front door—something that has happened a few times lately. With the alarm chirping in my wake, I headed straight to the customer service counter to explain that I had nothing on me—just to cover myself because I knew it would likely go off as I left. When the alarm went off AGAIN as I entered the music section inside the store, the clerk there asked me if my coat was new, and demagnetized a security tag inside the coat for me. I had a $50 gift card from my grandmother, so I began looking for a couple of DVDs. I was leaning toward getting a production of Puccini’s Turandot filmed in Beijing, but I wanted to read some reviews of this recording before forking over the $34.99. There was also a $19.99 Australian production of Pucinni’s La Boheme that is good, but the storyline is depressing. So, I skipped it.
I also was tempted to get Godfred Reggio’s Powaqqatsi and Koyaanisqatsi films, both of which are artistic commentaries on the fast pace of contemporary life in juxtaposition to traditional ways of tribal cultures. Both movies in this twin-pack featured the mesmerizing musical scores of the minimalist composer, Philip Glass. I was first exposed to Glass’s work during the last weekend of my freshman year in college. I had just been dumped earlier that day by my first serious girlfriend, and I found myself disinterested in sleep that night. My roommate and good friend from high school loaded his soundtrack of Pawaqqatsi into the boom box, and I passed the hours thinking deep thoughts as I looked out the dorm window and into the shadowy fog of the dismal night air. I went years without ever putting the Glass’s score and Reggio’s movie together, but I finally watched the movie about a year ago. It used to be that whenever I heard just a single bar from that soundtrack my emotional state would head south at warp speed.
We then went to Toys-R-Us across the road for 10 minutes (I set my watch), and then briefly over to the mall where we went to only the John Deere store. This was just a temporary store for the holiday shopping season, so the red neon lights that criss-crossed the metal ceiling seemed more than a few barns away from the farming theme and much more in synch with some edgy fashion shop that no doubt used to be there.
Our final stop was at Krispy Kreme, which has turned into my favorite place in Lafayette. To me, the place represents victory over the Ph.D. process as I stopped there to pick up coffee and donuts for my committee so they would have something to snack on during the defense of my prospectus and final dissertation. The next time I go there, I plan to buy one of their coffee mugs to keep around the office, more as a symbol than anything. Granted, it ain’t no coat of arms, but it’s something meaningful nonetheless. Come to think of it, I am planning on developing some type of symbol for me. Why not?
With cap and gown in hand, we headed to the McDonalds near the Tippecanoe Mall. This was my son’s culinary choice, although I would rather have gone to any of the ethnic restaurants near campus. That’s one thing I miss about being in a more diverse community—the smell of ethnic food. Nonetheless, we headed to McD’s. My son said, “After a good meal we can head to Toys-R-Us.” I’ve never heard “good meal” and McDonalds mentioned in the same sentence, but I guess it’s a matter of perspective. This particular McDonalds had a cool kids section, so we ended up playing foosball and several video games such as dirt bike racing, air hockey, and tennis.
With the “good meal” behind us, we headed to the Barnes and Noble where my relatively new Columbia coat set off the security device at the front door—something that has happened a few times lately. With the alarm chirping in my wake, I headed straight to the customer service counter to explain that I had nothing on me—just to cover myself because I knew it would likely go off as I left. When the alarm went off AGAIN as I entered the music section inside the store, the clerk there asked me if my coat was new, and demagnetized a security tag inside the coat for me. I had a $50 gift card from my grandmother, so I began looking for a couple of DVDs. I was leaning toward getting a production of Puccini’s Turandot filmed in Beijing, but I wanted to read some reviews of this recording before forking over the $34.99. There was also a $19.99 Australian production of Pucinni’s La Boheme that is good, but the storyline is depressing. So, I skipped it.
I also was tempted to get Godfred Reggio’s Powaqqatsi and Koyaanisqatsi films, both of which are artistic commentaries on the fast pace of contemporary life in juxtaposition to traditional ways of tribal cultures. Both movies in this twin-pack featured the mesmerizing musical scores of the minimalist composer, Philip Glass. I was first exposed to Glass’s work during the last weekend of my freshman year in college. I had just been dumped earlier that day by my first serious girlfriend, and I found myself disinterested in sleep that night. My roommate and good friend from high school loaded his soundtrack of Pawaqqatsi into the boom box, and I passed the hours thinking deep thoughts as I looked out the dorm window and into the shadowy fog of the dismal night air. I went years without ever putting the Glass’s score and Reggio’s movie together, but I finally watched the movie about a year ago. It used to be that whenever I heard just a single bar from that soundtrack my emotional state would head south at warp speed.
We then went to Toys-R-Us across the road for 10 minutes (I set my watch), and then briefly over to the mall where we went to only the John Deere store. This was just a temporary store for the holiday shopping season, so the red neon lights that criss-crossed the metal ceiling seemed more than a few barns away from the farming theme and much more in synch with some edgy fashion shop that no doubt used to be there.
Our final stop was at Krispy Kreme, which has turned into my favorite place in Lafayette. To me, the place represents victory over the Ph.D. process as I stopped there to pick up coffee and donuts for my committee so they would have something to snack on during the defense of my prospectus and final dissertation. The next time I go there, I plan to buy one of their coffee mugs to keep around the office, more as a symbol than anything. Granted, it ain’t no coat of arms, but it’s something meaningful nonetheless. Come to think of it, I am planning on developing some type of symbol for me. Why not?
posted by Raul Mosley at
10:39 PM
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