Sunday, May 16, 2010

Graduation Day!

Today was graduation for this year's class at Paul Smith's College, but (to me) more importantly, it's the day that we thought of as Gail's graduation...although she completed her doctorate a while ago, participating in today's ceremony marked the occasion for us as the earlier champagne and celebrations couldn't...

Pomp and Circumstance, both literal and musical rang in the occasion in a grand fashion on a lovely day, on the lovely campus of Paul Smith's College...Gail, along with much of the rest of the faculty, wore her full and newly improved regalia to help usher in the kids who were graduating today...in our minds they all graduated today...the two biggest differences were that Gail didn't have a hangover, and the kids didn't have her fancy octagonal motorboard...


Ellen Rocco, of NCPR, was the commencement speaker...although she got off to a great beginning...


Ben and I got a little bored and went out to the water's edge to skip stones into Lower St. Regis Lake...he has the heart (and stance) of an olympian, but the stone-skipping arm of a banana slug...


We snuck back in a little further into the ceremonies, and this time, perhaps bolstered by some food we snatched on the way through the food-tent, we got up close enough to get pictures of Dr. Gail (or Dr. Mom, as Ben calls her)...you can see that she has managed to avoid getting jaded about the customs surrounding academia, and was really excited to see us...I love how enthusiastically Gail throws herself into everything that she does...


We caught up with her as the faculty formed a tunnel for the new PSC graduates to walk out through to a vigorous round of applause...


We're very proud of Gail for all of her hard work in juggling a family, her job, and her studies over the last 4 years, and can't wait to see what the future holds for Dr. Gail!