Graduation 2010

The best commencement speech I've ever heard was Ellen's, to Tulane's 2009 "Katrina Class".

Seriously, when you're done reading this, go back and click on it. It's fantastic.

I attended the UHS graduation yesterday. I was prepared for boring speeches given by the principal, and boring, awkward speeches given by nervous honor students.

At one point, the boring speech went on so long the Graduating Class was covered in cobwebs.

But I was prepared for that.

What I was not prepared for was inflated beach balls popping up from among the graduating students, to be batted about.

It was an impressive feat- smuggling in deflated items, and blowing them up, hunched over, during the boring speeches.

I could imagine a whispered conversation like this:

"Hurry up, man! This is taking too long!"

"Ima pass out soon- here, help me with one of these!"

A couple beach balls went out of bounds and were collected by the stern adults.

But it was only the beginning. A few minutes later, up popped a Party Sheep.

And then a blow-up doll....

Followed by another blow-up doll with a rather large ... er, diploma.

By then, all the audience members were laughing and the boring speech givers had to pause to let the place quiet down before continuing to bore us.

When it was over, there were hugs all around.

In related news, the Groundhog saw his shadow, which means four more years of school, for most of you.

Congratulations UHS 2010 Graduating Class!