Providential

I took a quick trip to Rhode Island last month to see my little cousin graduate from college. It’s amazing how quickly four years go by.

A trip out to Providence from Albany is about three hours, even less if you really drive. I left a little after 5AM so I’d get there early enough to find parking that wasn’t too far away. I was running on two, maybe three hours of sleep so I caffeinated before jumping onto 90. 

Canada has Tim Horton’s, Massachusetts has Honey Dew. I had never heard of them before, and a quick search on my phone taught me that Honey Dew is indeed local. There are a handful of locations, and a majority of them are in Worcester. The closest one to the Capital Region? On the Mass. Pike, in Blandford, MA. A mere 49.22 miles away!

It wasn’t overly crowded, but there were quite a few people there waiting for commencement to start. And even with all these people, I was still able to spot out my aunt. At least my Where’s Waldo skills are coming in handy. There was a graduate mass, and then the students had to make their way out to the street to fall in line for the procession. If you’ve never been to Brown’s graduation, it’s long. There’s that whole gate thing – you enter as a freshman and exit a senior. Then they have the alumni march and some other things… blah, blah, blah.

Once the procession passed through the seating area, I headed over to the campus center to get a bite to eat. I had seen lots of Starbucks cups in the crowd and thought they got them in there. Turns out there was no Starbucks, but there was food… and Brown drinkware! Turkey brie sandwiches, salads, cupcakes, kombucha, etc. The place was all fancy schmancy, and if you didn’t detect it,  I was experiencing some campus center envy (UAlbany’s is tame).

After the general ceremony, we cut across campus to get to my cousin’s departmental graduation. Public vs. Private… yeah, you really could see the difference – for three departments there were less than 50 people receiving bachelors, masters, and doctorate degrees!  There was food waiting for the graduates and their families outside. It was a nice spread, and they were giving out glasses of champagne!

 

Such goofballs.

The eating didn’t end there though. We had a celebratory dinner at a Japanese restaurant not too far from school. The only seating they had that would accommodate our party were the hibachi tables, not that we were complaining. All the kids chowed down on sushi, sangria, and hibachi dinners, while the adults kept it light with soups and dish splitting. I do have video of our hibachi chef doing his whole cooking routine, but it was too dark, so I’m not posting it. I will say that he did a great job and my steak was delicious. 

Congrats to all you graduates out there!