Best Graduation Exercises

Wednesday

So, Wednesday. Wednesday I finished my Bounty Hunter paper and therefore finished my work as a law student. My parents and Owen had been in town since the day before but I had been too occupied to see them until Wednesday night. We were to meet with the rest of the Mormon NYU Law Grads-to-Be down in Little Italy for dinner that night. On my way down I walked by Washington Square Park, which was getting all dressed up for Thursday's Graduation ceremonies.


West 4th was being closed down for Grad Alley, some sort of large celebration for all the NYU grads. I hadn't really planned to go so I didn't get any tickets.


But then I saw that there was going to be face painting! Dang It! Dang It! I should've gotten tickets!!


On my way to dinner I saw friends taking embarassing photos . . .


Like I said, we met for dinner in Little Italy. I had never, ever eaten at one of those Italian restaurants in Little Italy before.


So there we were, 3Ls and family members.


Greg was showing off his serious new cell phone. It acted a whole lot like a real camera.


Like I said, 3Ls and family members, here the members of the Barnes family are emphasized.


This is my brother Owen, he is standing by the sign for the specials at the restaurant.


Thursday

So, Thursday. Thursday was the day of the all-NYU graduation in the park. After discovering some stars and making some maps (that's a joke about my hat) I headed down to find the line to stand in to graduate.


Mom is unstoppable and she was able to find me, and Bryant, who I had found to stand in line with.


Me and the Law School banner you line up behind when you graduate from law school flag.


Throngs of graduates.


Mindy found Bryant and I. She was graduating from the School of Noble Works, I don't remember its official name.


The Bobst Bobcat was out and about.


We were to walk around (not beneath) the great arch of Washington Square.


Neatly formed double-file line of graduates.


Washington Square fountain got dressed up nice for the graduation.


Here's my law school buddy Roger!


Eventually the imporant people assembled up on the stage and graduation commenced!


The environment was quite festive and people were on the roofs of their apartment buildings watching us and a police helicopter (pictured here) buzzed the park three times.


Among the recipients of honorary degrees: Mikhail Baryshnikov, the famous dancer. (Look closely, he's the fellow in the shades)


During graduation you sit for a long time and listen and eventually you start getting bored and just photograph whatever.


When they pronounced us graduates the central fountain sprung to life!


Then we sang the NYU song!


Gleeful graduates


Gleeful graduates, pt.II


Yo Mama gets is so dumb that when she finally graduates from college she can't help but run around in the fountain.


More fountain celebration, the graduation brochure asked us not to do this sort of thing.


Here's me and Owen. He'll be the next male Barnes to graduate from anything besides High School.


After graduation Dad had a really great idea and we went to Cafe Habana for lunch (the idea was to go to Cafe Habana for lunch)


Owen had the magnificent Cuban sandwich. (but this is him with corn)


Guess what? The Fish Tacos at Cafe Habana are delicious. That's the thing about Cafe Habana: it's so good, it doesn't make any sense. The restaurant is totally popular, it doesn't have to keep being good. But it does!


Hours later, my parents took me into Brooklyn to celebrate my graduation with a fine meal, but it turns out that Nick's Luncheonette was closed! So we settled for . . .


Peter Luger's!


If you're from New York you've probably heard talk about this steak house, how some say it is the greatest steak in the city (or the world) or some say it's totally overrated and going out of style or whatever. Well, this is what I have to say: My dinner at Peter Luger's was probably the most perfect meal of my life. That's all there is to it. So delicious from beginning to end, it was just perfect. We started with the shrimp cocktail and tomato & onion salad.


Also an appetizer: Bacon. (I close my eyes and I can still taste it.) (This bacon tasted better than most of the steaks I've eaten)


Then we enjoyed the Steak for Four (this is the steak after 1/2 of it had already been served)


My dinner plate. Guess what? The potatoes and spinach, also delicious.


Mom and Dad, quite pleased with dinner.


Owen and I, couldn't be happier with dinner.


Mom, pretending to get lupine on the remnants of the steak.


Owen, enjoying the final bites of his meal immensely.


Me, finishing off my plate daintily.


Oh, and guess what. The Peter Luger's ice cream sundae? Not to be messed with. In fact, so delicious.


3/4's of an extremely satisfied dinner party.


We recovered from the meal with a walk up Bedford through Brooklyn. There were toast graffitis all along the way.


Something I've never seen before: pink boots hanging form telephone wires.


I walked the family down to the river to look over old Manhattan.


Subway walls have eyes.


Friday

So, Friday. Friday was the Law School Graduation at Madison Square Garden. There were drums & bagpipes!


This is what a Madison Square Garden (Theater) graduation looks like.


At a Law School Graduation you listen to talks for about an hour and then sit for an hour and a half as people get hooded and walk across the stage and the dean shakes your hand and says "Congratulations, we're proud of you." And while you wait for it to end you look up at the big screen above you.


My first year property teacher.


My third year tax teacher.



My first year Civ Pro teacher. (that's law student talk for "Civil Procedure", sorry for dropping the lingo on you like that)


My fellow graduates.


And here I am with my Mom after all the graduating was finally done. If you need to see more pictures of my in my cap and gown or eating food, you should get in touch with her.


Mom, Dad, and Owen had to take off right after graduation to go see Emily get her Master of Speech Pathology in Illinois, so congratulations to Emily, too.

Something that happened during graduation: I got a text from Andrew saying he had decided to come to New York. That night. So stay tuned for the return of Epicly Bro'd Weekends. (Actually, the weekend wound up even more bro'd than you could believe)