Jay's PhD Ceremony

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Tuesday: arrival and dinner

Sarah and I arrived at La Guardia after a rather bumpy flight. We headed to our bed and breakfast, Sterling Bed Breakfast, and got settled in. The B&B was about 6 blocks from Jay's apartment...just a hop, skip and a jump in NY terms. The B&B was lovely. We had the only room in use on our floor. It had all stained wood for the moldings and door frames. Our room looked out onto the little garden patio in back where breakfast would be served weather permitting. We gathered at Jay's apartment and did a quick tour of the Prospect Heights area of Brooklyn in which he lives while we waited for Emily to arrive from work. During these few moments, it was not raining and we got a gorgeous view of the Brooklyn Museum and The Grand Army arch. Jay lives in a brownstone area of Brooklyn just a quick walk away from lovely things like the Brooklyn Botanical Gardens, the Brooklyn Museum, and Prospect Park.

Emily arrived and after a quick shower we were off for dinner at Rosewater. As with many...perhaps most...of the restaurants in NY, Rosewater is small, seating perhaps 30 people. It is tucked away amidst brownstones...again about a 15 minute walk from Jay's apartment. In NY walking is the most definitive way of getting from here to there. Dinner with Jay and Emily is often about sharing meals so that we all get a taste of whatever any one else has so I got to taste fluke, polenta, fiddlehead fern, soft shell crab and ramp besides my own sirloin. Yum!

Wednesday: Ceremony at Lincoln Center

The day started early because Jay needed to be at the Lincoln Center by 9:30 am for his pre ceremony. Lincoln Center is a beautiful place to hold this ceremony. Emily joined us there before the ceremony began. It was a work day for her so she took time off for the ceremony and lunch. Again, for a brief period of time there is sunshine or, at least a lack of rain. 300+ master degree honorees and 100+ doctoral degree honorees took up the center section of the auditorium. Each honoree was allowed 4 guests so the auditorium was packed. The professors who would in some way take part in the ceremony paraded down the aisle. They were each wearing the robes of the university from which he/she graduated so it was like a rainbow parade. They were followed by the Doctoral honorees coming down both aisles. We were lucky that Jay came down the aisle to which we were closest. He gave a gave us a high sign when he heard us shout his name. They were followed by the Masters honorees. The Master of Ceremonies said how many countries were represented but I don't remember the number. What was amazing was to hear and see the different representations of the countries. Clearly, based on the degrees given out and the names of the recipients, there were several Mid Eastern graduates. I heard Spanish behind me and Hebrew next to me. It was a world wide event as only a NYU ceremony could be. We all had one thing in common in that auditorium though. All those people were there for just one person...their graduate. The keynote address was entertaining, informative and relatively short but then came the giving of the degrees. The master degrees came first and there is just no way to go through 300+ names in a blink of an eye. Sarah and I had both brought our books and settled in for the long haul.

Then came the doctoral degrees. The recipients were not lined up alphabetically or by their fields.They each had their name on a card to give the announcer so it didn't matter what order they were in. It took a while before I saw Jay standing in line. The whole ceremony from start to finish was about 3 hours. Jay's part was about three minutes. His advisor got her doctorate from the Sorbonne in Paris so she had this really fabulous robe and cap in bright canary yellow. It had three stripes of white fur on the sleeve. She is tall with dark hair so she was very striking and easy to pick out on the stage. She had requested to do Jay's hooding herself so there she was in her bright yellow robe hooding Jay who was in a purple/deep royal blue robe. He was near the end of the line so shortly after his hooding, we were out on the plaza taking pictures.

Jay's advisor took all of us out for lunch. Her first name is Brigitte (bri-jeet). I don't know if I spelled her first name correctly. Before we met her Jay told me that she was really brilliant, that she spoke four languages fluently including Hebrew and Catalan and that he was really intimidated by her. Then he said she was tall and dressed on the cutting edge of fashion and that he was really intimidated by her. She is a very lovely person who laughed a lot through lunch and loved to both tell and listen to stories. She was born and raised in Paris so she has that beautiful french lilt to her speech. Again we walked several blocks to this lovely little restaurant. They cure their own meats...salami, etc right there. We had a table in the corner and Jay cordially arranged the seating. I ended up seated next to his advisor. We enjoyed a lunch of cured meats, cheese, beet salad, sweet potato gnocchi and a bottle of prosecco. It was a perfect meal....great food, well prepared and served, and great company. Afterward I told Jay that I didn't find her intimidating. His reply was that I had never had a paper graded by her! We parted ways with his advisor after lunch and Emily headed back to work. By the way, this was another small restaurant...probably seating 50 max.

We head out of the restaurant into a downpour. Sarah and I were armed with our umbrellas but Jay was just in his shirt sleeves (remember he was in a robe for the ceremony) and John just had a windbreaker. After a brief discussion, we decide on the Museum of Natural History...clearly this was not the weather conducive to a walk in Central Park. According to Jay it was just a couple of blocks away so off we go...and about 7 to 9 maybe 11 blocks later we arrived at the museum. Sarah and I have fared reasonably well under our umbrellas but we had to stop part way there for Jay to break down and buy one. Slightly soaked we wander around the museum through the Origin of Humans exhibit, the gem and mineral exhibit to see the Star of India sapphire and, or course, dinosaur bones. It would be hard to see everything in the museum given a whole day so we barely made a dent in it in the few hours we had but it was worth the walk and the rain.

We hopped the subway to Times Square. Sarah had never seen Times Square and she wanted to do a little shopping for souvenirs for Liam and Teagan. Times Square is perfect for that. It had stopped raining before we left the museum so we were able to enjoy Times Square without dodging raindrops. It continues to surprise me to stand in front of something that I see on TV every morning...the Good Morning America studio. Sarah would walk backwards to take pictures as we walked down the middle of Times Square.

Back on the subway to Brooklyn, we all were tired and just rode along. On both subway rides, gentlemen gave up their seat for me. I didn't know that kind of thing happened with regularity still. My first inward reaction was something like shock and denial but I try to practice accepting kindness wherever and whenever it is offered. I sat down and my poor feet were happy I did.

We met Emily at the apartment and Jay had his pick of the evening restaurant...after all it was his day and he chose a nearby Mexican restaurant and guess...we walked. Drinks and chips were very welcome. Fried fish tacos and shrimp tacos were a couple of the special for that night. I went with a regular menu item of a goat cheese and chorizo quesadilla...however I got to sample the fish tacos since they were at the table. It was a great meal and great conversation and at the end the waiter surprised us by serving tequila shots. We walked back to Jay's apartment but guess what...we ordered a car and RODE back to our B&B.

Sarah and I crashed. The next morning we were headed to the airport and home.

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Photos

Jay and me
Jay after the ceremony in his robe and newly acquired hood