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oh what a weekend!!

such a busy, busy weekend......

Friday afternoon, the BU Schol of Management had it's garduation ceremony at Agganis Arena. The place is huge! They blocked off half of the arena, because it can hold like 20,000 people. We sat in press boxes, which were considered "handicap" seating. The box next to us was reserved for the guest speaker's family. Guest speaker? Alessandro Benneton. Anyway, it was me, Monkey, Richie's parents, his sster-in-law and the 2 boys, her father, and one of Richie's friends.  The ceremony was your typical grad school ceremony.   I had more fun hanging with Ben and my nephews. Jack, who is learning to read, was excited that he could read some of the letters on the scoreboard and Jumbotron.  There was an amazing reception afterwards, but since the ceremony didn't end until 6:45pm, by the time we walked over to the reception, I had to go in order to make it home for shabbat. Richie stayed later, and walked home.  I don't know if you've ever been in the BU fitness center, but holy cow, that place is unbelieveable!!! The reception was on the basketball court. If I could use those facilities, I'd go at the drop of a hat. Anyway, parents joined us for dinner, and then I crashed.
     Shabbat morning, we went to lunch at the rabbi's house. Dani and Shira are moving to California. I am still in denial.  We've become very close over the past  2 years and I am just beside myself. Plus, Eliana always grabs Ben and pets his face when she sees him. It kills me with cuteness.  Anyway, Michal wanted to to something for them ,so she asked me to coordinate a date to have a lunch at their house.  Turns out that everyone who I invited was able to attend, so all in all, there were almost 30 peope, including kids. It was so much fun! Plus, there was a sheva bracha at desert.  I felt badly for Alexis, because Ben was sitting next to her nad he was getting a little kvetchy, but after he ate, he was fine. he also went downstairs and took a 2 hour nap. Damn! Kid never sleeps like that for me!!
      Sunday was the main BU graduation. I was supposed to meet up with my inlaws. Right.  At the grad chool graduation, it was almost impossible to find them. Multiply that by 1500, and that's the amount of people who were going to Nickerson Field.  So wouldn't you know that as I walked to the stadium, who turns the corner and almost walks right into me? My in-laws! Perfect timing.  We sat in field seating because it was handicap accessinle, which we needed for the stroller.  I must say, I really enjoyed the ceremony.  A frum kid from Newton was the student speaker. Larry Bird and Steven Speilberg were among the honarary degree recipients. Very cool! People went crazy when Larry Bird got his degree. Same with Spielberg. Rep. Capuano spoke. Now, I was expecting a bunch of crap during his speech. Boy, I was wrong. He started by saying "a lot of you objected to my being the keynote speaker, because I wasn't popular or interesting enough for you. If that's your biggest problem in life, consider yourself lucky." FANTASTIC!!!!  He honestly was inspirational.  In the midst of all of the hubub, which included a dog wearing a graduation cap, I had to change Ben. The only hard surface, other than the ground, were te folding chairs on the field. So, Phyllis distracted him while I changed his diaper. No easy feat for a kid who insists on wiggling and turning at every possible moments.  He laughed throughout the entire thing, and when I lifted him up ina ll his nakedness in order to get his pants on, a fellow mom came by and nodded to me. Guess I'm not the first, nor will I be the last, to change their baby in front of a crowd of 100,000 people.
After graduatin, we went to Taam China 2. There w10 of us, including kids. Ben ate chinese food for the first time. Sort of. He "ate" rice, tofu, and a piece of chicken. Some did make it into his mouth.  He still gags on solids, but he's slowly getting used to thm. Thank goodness. I can't wait until he eats normal food.  He wound up covered in rice, had some in his eye and in his ear, but he was perfectly content.
I am exhausted. I am also thrilled at what a wonderful weekend we all had.