Random perspectives from Cleveland

Yesterday was my graduation ceremony downtown. Everything started okay at home. The weather was fine, well cold, but otherwise fine. We went out to breakfast and the weather was still fine, which was weird as there was supposedly a huge winter storm coming our way. After breakfast we were driving downtown because I needed to be there at noon and the ceremony was starting at 1:00 PM. About halfway there it became evident that there really was a large winter storm coming our way, and in fact, it was here. The roads were clear, but it was still essentially white out conditions. The winds were quite heavy and were busy blowing all of the snow sideways, thus obscuring your vision.

Lindsay dropped me off at the Wohlstein Center (see Convocation Center) and headed out to park. As I would be wearing a cap and gown, I left my coat in the car. It turns out that it was cold outside. Really cold. Especially with no coat on. Anyway, I made it alive and unfrozen into the building and headed over to pick up my honors award. Yes, they gave me an award in the form of a large medal because I graduated Magna Cum Laude. Top 15 in my class. Yay for me. I guess that's what happens when I can be bothered to attend class. Back to the story, I got my award, and went to the basement. I signed in, got dressed, and here it was, 45 minutes before the ceremony. Yada, yada, yada, I went up to take some pictures and say my hello's, went to the ceremony, etc, etc. Now the ceremony is over. Great. It's only 3 hours later. We met up and headed out.

It was cold, windy, wet, snowy, and all together sucky. Did you see the weather at the Browns game? Conveniently, it was exactly like that. We had to walk about 2 blocks. No problem right? Well there was a problem. The city of Cleveland has exactly zero snow plows. Maybe even less than that. Snow? In Cleveland? Come on! That never happens. Why do we need snow plows? We don't. Problem solved.

So we're running through the arctic circle otherwise known as downtown Cleveland. Cars are sliding all over the place, nearly running down pedestrians like they're getting bonus points for doing so. Eventually we made it to the car. Next stop, the highway. If only we could see the roads, let alone the lanes. Lindsay was driving, and she got to the highway, which were better than the roads but not by much. At one point, we were in the fast lane and there was a car about 100 feet in front of us in the slow lane. He tried to get over a lane and instead spun out in a 720 across all four lanes of the highway and into the wall directly in front of us. By directly, I mean he was about 20 feet in front of us when he crashed into the wall. We stopped and he got out, checked his car, and then just drove away, so we did the same.

Long story short, we made it home safely, and had a nice party with a bunch of people. The end. Come to think of it, maybe later I'll expound on the party itself, complete with pictures. Or not.