Commencement Week 2011

Squat city. Amherst w/out classes. Down 'n dirty work (hey, it's money). Lots of partying (because I'm so into that). Commencement week after the end of the spring semester is all of the above. With the bulk of campus gone, only seniors and a selection of student workers remain on our beloved alma mater's grounds.

The short: In order to stay in campus housing for Commencement and Reunion weeks (the 2 weeks post-semester), one has to secure a job with facilities or dining services full time. As part of the Choral Society, I was required to stay till Commencement Day, and so procured a job to hang around in the meantime.

This year, I decided to sign up for grounds crew. Now, usually being outside in the spring time sounds absolutely wonderful, especially given the alternative is to be scrubbing walls inside dormitories. Even if it would involve heavy lifting and shorter breaks. Well, mother nature seemed very intent on giving us the finger this time around, with it raining constantly beginning on the last day of exam period, through the entire week till Commencement Day. Yeah, thankyouverymuch rain Gods. So what was to be a fun, tough job became a miserable, cold, tough job. At least the work let up after day 3, since we were running through our tasks fast enough for them to not have much else for us to do.

Of course, life after 3 in the afternoon (because we were lucky enough to have to report to work at 7 a.m.) was a blast. Halo in Merrill 3, cooking for a ton of people, movie nights, jam sessions, Northampton runs and - naturally - tent parties definitely kept me occupied beyond those hours. Val continues to disappoint (heck, it's closed now and that's even more disappointing) but there's been plenty to snack on otherwise.


Still running the sleep deficit though, so excuse me while I attempt to recuperate on that front.