Obama-rama!

Just a little bit slow in blogging about the events of last week. It certainly was a week of festivities, which is why I have been remiss.


But before we get to the actual convocation and hooding for Enoch which happened on Saturday, I reserve this post for talk of commencement. ASU, by some amazing stroke of luck (be it good or bad depending on your political leanings), scored Barack Obama as the giver of the commencement address. Of course, this suddenly made an event which usually draws around 12,000 balloon to about 70,000. With such large crowds expected, they moved the event to the 73,000 seat Sun Devil Stadium and told people to come early and prepared for the heat. Our tickets, which were definitely of the nose-bleed variety, told us to arrive at 4 PM for the 7 PM event. But being the pregnant lady that I am, I said we would chance it and go later. There was no way I was going to endure the 100 degree heat for that long. So we showed up after 5 PM, and guess what? No security lines, no crazy public transportation. It moved slick and easy, we were in, and left to wait for an hour and a half for anything to happen.

Here was our view:

The junbotrons were a big help, but hey, the tickets were cheap. Enoch could have been down on the field, but he elected to sit up with me because of the fun factor, I suppose. ;) Actually, Enoch wouldn't have gone at all had I not encouraged him and wanted to go myself. The guy doesn't understand that some things are worth experiencing once (or in my case, twice) in your life—like hearing a sitting President live. But I think he had a decent time.

Obama is a gifted orator for sure. His speech writers gave him great material all about using one's education for the good of others rather than for selfish pursuits. Here's a line to give you some flavor:

“At this difficult time in our national history, the old approaches won’t get you where you want to go. The leaders we revere, and the businesses and institutions that last, are the result of devotion to some bigger purpose."

Of course, the evening was not without some craziness. The lady sitting next to Enoch happened to be some sort of obsessive Obama groupie—yelling, tearing up, sitting on the edge of her seat as if she might explode with joy. And she happened to get up and leave the instant the speech was over.

But she wasn't alone in that. It was rather disappointing to see people peeling out of the stands so quickly and en masse after his speech. After all, there were other people and honors to bestow in this commencement—like doctoral candidates and scholarship winners. Who are those people anyway? But such is the state of our manners these days. We stayed until fireworks at the end. I suppose we benefitted from the mass exodus. It made getting out for us much easier and allowed us to be home by 11 PM.

Aren't we cute as we bake in the sun??