Oh, it’s graduation season! I love graduating, I love watching other people graduate, I love the music, the parents, the leis, the everything. I knew I wouldn’t have much time to make it from the graduation lunch with the outstanding grads in public service to the  Under the Oaks ceremony for the Newcomb College Institute, so I took the speedy little road bike and headed out in cloudy skies to celebrate myself some college graduates. My favorite part of graduation has to be right after the ceremony when the kids are pouring out the doors, awkwardly trying to figure out how to be both themselves and their parent’s children. I love telling parents ridiculously detailed stories of their young graduate’s myriad accomplishments as I attempt to embarrass my students, one last time. The other thing I love about graduation is the food. I’m going to eat and drink well this weekend, I think. It started with fancy-pants lunch at Commander’s Palace, and then there was this: a ring of tables, piled with awkwardly soft cheeses and a variety of crackers and breads, surrounding a palm tree made out of fruit kebabs. A thing to behold, it was! That fruit knows how to celebrate a graduation, for sure. I wonder what the folks who built it were thinking as they made this delightful centerpiece. I loved–too much to eat it. I zipped back home on the road bike for some real food and a rest, but now I’m getting back on and pedaling Uptown to say a few more con-grad!-ulations.