“Remoted” – Workday 99 /Day 135 (Wednesday)

What can I say about you, Wednesday? It was breezy and nice during the work hours and the windows were open and it was quite comfortable at the BungaLowell. It wasn’t Prince Spaghetti day, but it was leftover lobster ravioli day and that was tasty. And, after a two-month COVID-19 delay, it was high school graduation day for my middle niece. Go Chowdah 2020!

Aerial!

I knew which website was carrying the ceremony live stream, but I didn’t know if there was any sort of program rolling before the actual ceremony, so I went to the site early. It was too early, and there was an ARTS program with a group in blue unitards dancing. This gave me time to prepare a glass of lemonade and do some things elsewhere in the cyber world, returning about 20 minutes before the scheduled start time. This time, there was a slide program of the graduate’s yearbook photos running. It was in the section of last names beginning with “O.” My niece’s name is in the “C” section. So, I missed that. Found out from Mom the slide show ran through twice, so I missed more than I thought.

When “Pomp and Circumstance” started playing, the eyes started leaking, and the words we were taught at practice for my own high school graduation cycled through my head like they do every time I hear this music. “My seagull flies backward, your seagull does not.” What the hell? I think it was supposed to help us keep time during the processional. It's like being haunted.

All during the live stream, I scanned the crowd shots. I knew on which side of the stage Chowdah would be seated and kept looking for her long, thick hair. Guess what? There is a lot of long hair in the graduating class of 2020. Seriously. A lot, lot. Miles and miles of it. During every crowd shot I bored laser beam holes into my laptop screen looking for a familiar face in the sea of purple caps, gowns, and masks, and the socially distanced guests, knowing my sister, brother-in-law and two other nieces were there somewhere. The camera angles switched up to keep it interesting, mixing the occasional visually appealing aerial image with shots of people baking on the field and fanning themselves, seated graduates, and graduates in line waiting to walk across the stage.

The cell phone was poised and ready for Chowdah’s program to be called (HVAC and Building Maintenance). The print screen button on my laptop, which worked during the slide show, did not work during the live stream in full screen, but luckily, I had checked that early. For the “walk,” the grads climbed a few steps up the stage, walked to a white pedestal marking the center of the stage, paused behind the pedestal for a photo, then walked to pick up their diploma from a table and exit the stage.

Chowdah's moment and the worst
video camera angle of the entire
graduating class.

A video feed camera was pointed directly at the center stage pedestal with a nice, tight shot. The person's name was called, there was a nanosecond of not much until they entered the shot of the stage, paused at the pedestal for a photo, and moved on. You could even see the flash of the camera of the photographer in front of the stage. For hundreds of students, I’m guessing 99% of the class, this was the visual. Guess who was in the 1% with a screwy video camera angle? Yup, it was Chowdah. The camera angle for her walk was distant, and from the side of the stage. It showed her from the back climbing the steps to the stage, from super far away on the stage, and from the back exiting the stage. Those are the images I got with my phone. The view never cut to the center stage camera facing the pedestal. Then as the next name was called, the camera cut to the straight-on angle for the next person. I can’t even make this crap up. This is the kind of luck that runs in my family.

Love you Chowdah! Super proud of you. And I’ve got your back. Literally. In pixels.