Don's Mom came to visit from North Carolina to watch Don get an award at the Dean's Graduate Reception on May 14th and his Masters on May 20th from Cal State Fullerton's College of Business and Economics.
The reception was held in the Garden Cafe, part of the Titon Student Union Center. The weather was perfect, the horsedourves were tastey, and the speeches were short, well spoken and inspiring.
My brother, Vince, and his wife, Sharon, arrived awhile after we did, and one of Don's fellow graduates, Lauren, also joined our party.
Upon our arrival, we were instructed that a table had been reserved for us. Woo-hoo! Aside from my own wedding, getting to be at a table of honor was a first for me.
We arrived early, so I had time to photograph our surroundings.
As seen through the lens of the Nikon Coolpix L5, here are the podium and one of the speakers. The music is gentle and makes me want to take a minute by the fountain (oops, no pictures of the fountain!) to meditate.
And this is the podium (yes, again), as seen through the 70-300 mm lens of the Nikon D70S
Behind the podium, you'll notice a table that has something blue on it? Scroll down a notch or two and I'll take you there.These are the awards!
Don gets one of these!Speaking of my clever Guest of honor, here he is with his Mom, Joan!
And here they are again.
And, now back to the wider angle of the smaller Nikon Coolpix L5
And lets zoom in with that camera...
Contributing to the charm of the Garden Cafe is all the greenery draping the wall.
And here it is through the D70S
And again...
What about those horsedourves I promissed? Well, they're getting set up over there near the "entrance".
Here, let's take the little Nikon with the wider angle lens over there for some close-ups.
I suppose this isn't much of a close-up actually, but I loved those flowers.
This is the spread. An adequate quaint little affair.
I don't think I got a close up of what was in the large silver pot there, so I'll just tell you now that it was little Teryaki chicken kabobs.Here on the left we have a fruit plate with pineapple, grapes, honeydew, and strawberries. To the right of the fruitplate is a plate of sandwhich rolls composed of cheese and sandwhich meats--I think. The gentleman is setting down a plate of dinner rolls, and to his right is bow tie pasta with cherrie tomatoes.
Zooming out a bit after some vegetables arrived (celery, cherrie tomatoes, jicama, broccoli, and carrots) and another fruit dish.
Dinner rolls are on the white pedestal with the blue napkin atop and the tastyest dish here, in my opinion, was that dish with the little doe balls covered with powdered sugar on the far right!
Here is the entire spread. The only table excluded here is the one with the water and punch.
These are those doe balls I mentioned. I think they were deep fried thin round shells of doe filled with something remeniscent of whipped cream but a little heavier -- maybe even a vanilla pudding, and the bowl with the ladel in it is a sweet sauce that may have been carmel. It was GOOD whatever it was!
Here's the pasta dish. I don't remember what the green was. It might have been cilantro.
OK, that's the food. How's the action?
Nothing yet.But in no time at all we were joined by Vince (far right), Sharon (hard to see behind Vince), and Lauren (far left).
There, now you can see Sharon.
Let's try that now with the D70S
Oops, Sharon's gone again.Here she is.
Wait, time out. I gotta take a picture of that tree right there.
Aren't those leaves pretty?Here's Don returning to the table with his punch.
Oh! Shhh--quiet! It's starting!
Dr. Mark Stohs, Associate Dean, reminds graduates to network, saying you want people thinking, "Who ya gonna call? No, not Ghost Busters. Fullerton Alumni!"
Chris Anicich is the Graduate Program Coordinator.
Dr. Anil Puri, Dean, gives an inspiring talk and informs the group that the new building for the College of Business and Economics on the Fullerton campus is expected to be ready in Fall of 2008 (Don's program was held at the Irvine Spectrum facility the University was leasing. His last class, this Summer, will be held on what used to be the El Toro Marine Base).
Guest speaker, Mark Murphy ('Cal State Fullerton Bachelor's '81, Cal State Fullerton Master's '84), Chief Executive Officer of Pro-Dex, gives a moving speach advising graduates to remember that integrity is more satisfying than the great cars and the great house, which he does not dismiss as trivial, but places as lower priority demonstrations of accomplishment.
Stating first that various writers, such as Stephen Covey, and Jim Collins have said it all more elloquently than he could, he sugggests to the audience that they follow the advice of these and other great leaders, that if they want to feel good at the end of the road, it won't be the cars and the houses that matter to them. It will be the knowledge that they were not so much influenced by external roles and expectations, as by their own vision. Emphasizing that one must lead from the inside out, and serve from the outside in.
This picture I was feeling pressure to take as everyone waited for me to finish, including the hired photographer. You might want to look for her photos in about a month on the school website considering that I managed to get both the Dean and the Associate Dean at an off moment.
So here's the blue certificate holder. I took this later and lost my good lighting. The specular surface reflected the indoor window-lit sunset conditions that I was in at the time, so unfortunately it looks brown.
And here is what was in the blue holder
And here is what came in the black velvet box.
Then, anti-clamatically for you, but fun for us, Don, his mom, Vince, Sharon and I went to dinner at a nearby Polly's Pies (on Raymond, South of Chapman -- in case you care.)
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