darryl and sam came this morning to collect my boxes - seven of us (from both harvard and mit) have rented a shipping container and are having our books sent home. wanted to go with them to the port (me: it would be fun! get out of my apartment for a bit! darryl: it's just a port lah, what's there to see? primary school excursion issit?) but there was hardly any room in the van, so i was dropped off at lowell house instead to help joanna pack. (darryl: joanna, we're coming over now...what do you mean you haven't taped your boxes shut? me: aha! minz has tape, scissors and indelible marker in her bag! i'm a useful person!)

the lowell house courtyard was especially lush after the rain, but there wasn't time to admire it - or indeed to admire the many muscled men of varying ages, their loyal shoulders heaving under boxes belonging to their female relatives. joanna, arms bangled with rolls of tape, sat on each of her boxes to make them shut, while i copied her address and phone number in block letters onto them in blue permanent marker. (at one point, joanna having gone out of the room, and i in the inner room labelling her boxes, i heard the door and a male voice call out to her, and i shouted back for them to hurry up, thinking it was darryl and sam who had arrived at last to do some of heavy lifting, only to discover joanna's parents, whom i'd never met before. me: "oh! i'm sorry uncle! auntie! i didn't mean to be rude!) joanna showed up with a handcart she'd shimmied from the super's office, and we got all the boxes into the truck. i took charge of darryl's graduation gown, and the boys drove off to the container port. i was rather pleased that after accomplishing all of that it was only eleven in the morning, and went and got lunch (portabello, avocado, pesto and mozzarella sandwich) at campo del fiori, and then it was to the coop to return darryl's gown. what i found most amusing, when studying his receipt while queuing, is that his gown cost $40 to rent, and came with this warning (printed on neon pink paper, in case you didn't pay attention, i suppose): "in the event of rain or excessive humidity during commencement, the dye in the gowns may discolour your clothing. please DO NOT wear your gowns over valuable garments." no one said it had to be opulent, but they might have managed a different fabric that didn't run? (by the way darryl your receipt is with me, which you should claim swiftly before i lose it.)

harvard square feels tired the day after graduation and while there wasn't exactly rubble crossing the yard i felt rather like i was picking my way through war debris. MIT has their commencement today, and cardullo's, i saw, had changed the sign they'd put outside the shop, so that it now congratulated MIT students instead. (though do the churches of cambridge ring their bells for MIT too? ) emma s., who'd been at uva at the same time as i, is in town to attend her cousin's graduation from MIT, so we have to arrange a get-together. i'd better start planning, otherwise we'd find every restaurant in cambridge fully booked. but first, a long, long nap.