Gradiation

I was bombarded with graduation crap today, adding to my anxiety about the coming law-storm this Summer and Fall. Here are a few interesting items.

Boalt's graduation speaker will be Gavin Newsom, who's just as pretty as Jonny Moseley but slightly more accomplished. I was thinking former Solicitor General Ted Olson would have been a good speaker, since he has an outside chance of being the second Boalt alum to be appointed to the U.S. Supreme Court. But having the guy who successfully argued Bush v. Gore at any Berkeley graduation ceremony probably wouldn't go over very well. Newsom is a fine choice, all things considered, being that he was at the center of one of the nation's biggest legal hoo-hahs of the past year and probably puts on a good show. Newsom's liberal politicking will be balanced by Boalt Professor Angela Harris, whose conservative areas of interest include feminist legal theory and critical race theory. I'm very happy that most of my attending family will be Democrats.

Also, I get 12 tickets. 12 tickets! I think that's a little excessive. I suspect that it's based entirely on mathemagic -- there are like 300 graduates and the ceremony is held at the Greek Theater -- but I can't help but imagine that most grads are left with extra tickets, with each little unused piece of paper representing someone who doesn't love them. As for me, I have nine people who've told me they'll come, three of which are likely to crap out. So if anyone wants to see what Gavin Newsom could possibly talk about during his speech let me know and I'll talk you out of coming.

In related news, the Cal Student Store sent an envelope full of crap to my parents today, at my address. I'm still deciding whether I want the customized graduation pillow(!) or the crappy class ring. Maybe the class ring shoots lazor beams.

It'll be interesting to see if Berkeley Graduation #2 has any parallels to Berkeley Graduation #1 back in 2001. If my B.A. experience is any indication, I can expect the following things on May 14th:

-My gown will be wrinkly and too big.
-Members of my family will refuse to sit with each other and half of them will bolt (from Boalt!) as soon as the ceremony is over.
-I won't drink nearly enough (not likely - this time I'll be packing a hip flask).
-I'll wind up at a keg party in a converted barn, meet a girl having trouble with the keg, and offer unsolicited legal advice related to her keg troubles, whereupon the girl will look at me and say, "Wow, are you a lawyer?"
-I'll tell the story about the keg girl to everyone I meet for the next four years.

Here's hoping.