Mind Blowing

The following takes place between 5.30 am and 11.00 pm on the day of Stone's graduation

so finally i graduated. alhamdulillah. i could tell by how relieved my parents were...hehehe...
they've done their part, that's for sure. now, they're officially the proud parents of 2 graduates. whether any one of us goes on to match papa remains to be seen. i think not.
i'm still having a hangover from 4 days of festival mood and camera posing. excuse me for being overexcited...but i think i really went all out in taking my picture in the jubah in different situations. let's see...
1. wearing the robe while riding a horse. done.
2. wearing the robe while driving my NAF 545. done.
3.wearing the robe with only a towel underneath. done.
4. wearing the robe surrounded by playboy playmates. yeah, right. tak salah berangan, kan?

actually, i've got a zillion things to write down, but it's all so jumbled up i don't even know where to begin. the ceremony was okay, i guess...could have been more perfect, but i'm not complaining. actually, i really made good preparations for this convocation..but when the day came itself...everything went berzerk. i guess the preparations were for damage limitation, so i'm glad i made them. i actually hate doing this, but just for the record...i wanna write down how the day went:

5.30 am: i woke up dead tired coz i slept late, but suprised to see mama already busy in the kitchen

6.20 am: finally bertolak dari seremban, not helped by papa's temper for tardiness, but heck.. this no time to be emotional, so i just buat tak dengar

7.15 am: sangkut kat federal highway in front of mid valley. i start to get restless.

7.30 am: parked our car at the padang in front of First College. there were not many cars, but almost everyone there were putting on their jubah except me. i skidaddled (i dunno how to spell this word, tapi rasa seronok using it) off to the Bangunan Peperiksaan

7.35 am: phone calls start coming in....zaman, shirley, suria, people who haven't called me in ages except for this day. terserempak ngan rauhan & salleh putting on their robe kat BCB

7.40am: jumpa kajun at the Bangunan Peperiksaan with his mom. yesss..kajun still haven't put on his robe. cayaler kajun, i knew i could count on u...hhehehhe...

7.45 am: finally arrived at Aras 1 without my robe on yet. relax...still got time. jumpa all my coursemates yang dah lama tak nampak. iqram pun belum pakai robe. goodie...

7.50am: after settling down from the excitment of seeing one another, pauline helped me put on my jubah. i really wanna state this down coz i really owe it to her for helping me. thanks pauline.

7.57am: while pauline helped me put on the jubah, jumpa ngan Ismail. he was one of this year's recipient of the Anugerah Emas Diraja. he's my junior, so i congratulated him and learned that he was doing research at the IPSP. mannn..bayangkan laa..this guy could step into any office and demand for any job, but he chose to do research. and he's not one of those nerdy bookworm types. he's cool and i dare say he's a hot prospect in the job industry. he really wants to learn more, so i bid him all the best...

8.00 am: after my jubah all nice and cun (kudos to pauline), terjumpa suria tengah terhegeh-hegeh memakai robe dia. i helped out along with some other people.

8.02 am: the group starts to move to DTC after a short briefing. i didn't really realize this journey from Aras 1 to DTC because i was busy helping suria put on her pin. dah la pin kecik...tensen aku. i even pricked my finger in the process. oh well...what's a little blood? they say the best moment was when traffic at the DTC stopped because we were crossing, but i didn't even realize this moment as it all went by like a flash. takpelah...kalau aku tekan button kat traffic light tu pun, traffic stop jugak. but i guess it ain't the same, right? hmmmm....

8.10 am: we're seated in the DTC, and unlucky me had to be seated next to a girl i hardly know from the department. bummer...aku nak lepak ngan irwin, suria, semua. apehal aku duduk sebelah minah ni? i try to start a conversation:
Me: so, u sekarang keje mana?
Girl: nitto denko, seksyen 23 shah alam
Me: ohhh...nitto denko. i know that.
end of conversation.
bestnye....
so i was stuck with this amoi, while my friends were laughing and giggling away at their seats. so i browsed thru the convocation guest book. lucky my name was there, so memang betul la aku graduate. tetiba aku perasan one thing...the guest of honor for today was Raja Nazrin, not the Toh Puan as we were expecting. heyyy...a good suprise. at least something good was happening today. cantik sikit gambar aku grad nanti....so i thought.

9.00 am: finally, the ceremony began. laaa..so it starts around 9 rupanya. but they stated in the book at 8.0 am. bagus gak rupanya...i thought. knowing myself and other fellow malaysians, i guess u could say it was a good move. biar awal jangan lambat.

9.30 -10.30am: they start to give out the scrolls, starting with this mat salleh who was awarded professor emeritus. he was from the Geology department of the science faculty. as they talked about his achievement before he was presented the title, i thought...wow, mamat ni mesti terer geology in the Southeast asian region. maybe he can just look at the tanah and know what kind of minerals are in there...wooooooo....

10 sumthing: showtime! finally, they reach my department. i was in the second row mengadap tengah on the right side of DTC. we all queued up at the side, waiting for that special moment as for the first time, my name is called aloud in DTC. time tu la sibuk2 betulkan jubah and the selendang. irwin lagi gagah...nasib baik ada mak andam standby at the side to help out any unprepared graduates. as i waited for my turn, i noticed that Umi was reading the name. another nice suprise. she was doing her masters, so dia kena la help out with this varsity things.
finally....Amri B bin B. it's hard to describe the moment becoz u're so tensed and excited and scared and menggelabah and wateva shit lagi, so u don't feel nothing. yang aku ingat, aku stop, tunduk, langkah ke depan, take the scroll from Raja Nazrin, step back, tunduk and walked on. pergghhh..textbook procedure. if only the picture would have told the same story. just nak luahkan how i'm kinda dissapointed about my graduation picture. it looks so not me, tu yang tensen tu. cehh..padahal aku yang tak photogenic, nak complain laks. takpelah..i've seen worse pictures...hhehehehe.
so i took my seat next to zaman laks...nak lari from that amoi. chatted away like nobody else is taking their scrolls. but a touch of sadness, when this lady took the scroll on her husband's behalf, who already passed away. sedihnyaa...she wasn't wearing the robe, so it looked awkward at first. but we were informed earlier. it was touching to see...but my sadness was like for 20 seconds becoz i was already like this budak kecik tak sabar2 nak keluar petang main. seriusly, memang excited nak keluar and jumpa mama, papa and of course...the crazy gang of bantingers

around noon: finally, we were released. mann..i waited for 4+ years for this. possibly my whole life, and it came down to a few seconds. but the moment yang mahal tu. i straight went to BCB beside the DTC where i already promised with my parents. yeahh..my parents, the non-believers in cellphone technology, not that u could use them on that day so maybe it was kinda useless, huh? with all the lines jammed, you'd be lucky to even get a ring. sambil tunggu dengan hati yang separa panas sebab lama...i met todd, who was the first person i met that day upon coming out. lepas tu rauhan, kajun, lalok, wan and even chan who graduated the day before. finally, i met up wit my parents who was really waiting dekat bawah sikit dari DTC tu. geram ada gak, but today's not the day okay? after puas taking pics with my parents, terjumpa pulak arab and jepp and sapa tah lagi tak ingat coz it was bising. arab was hugging me and shouting and handing me his pasu bunga, which turned out not to be a bad idea, coz u could put the flowers in it. macam2 la pak arab nih.....

12.00++pm: everyone was there. i 'ushered' my parents to wait for me at the gerai makanan. and then...i start to change from amri b to stone. hehhehe...i am so not like this at home. mampos aku kalau they read this blog. i wanna thank everyone who i remembered was there, if i left anyone out, do point out coz i'm listing it out one by one. gracias to:
todd, arab, jepp, shar, kuman, jack, pullah, gaban, popo, jibam, syidee, keng, kurel, ayu, zana, tippie, pon, shapeng, koyan, bulat, affy, faizah, dee, siti, zila, sim, riyadh, rudy, yatim, mikai, monk, fith, oun, ada lagi ke? hopefully i didn't leave anyone out...

1.10pm: after all the pictures, the candid moments, the laughter and everything...we finally did bersurai. went my way to Gerai Fifth la...kata collegian...hahahha along with geebum and arab. took some pictures there, jumpa ana & her sidekicks, toss and other juniors as well. lepak-lepak and borak2 till i realized i janji with my parents to meet them up at the car by 1.30pm. baru la nak kelam-kabut pergi...

1.45pm: arrived at our car parked near the tasik varsiti. saw my mother, who said papa went looking for me. okayyy...so now kena tunggu dia lak.

2.00pm: papa finally arrived. they already had lunch, but i was damn hungry, so we made our way to Kayu Nasi Kandar SS2, where dah lama tak makan ayam madu dia. yummy...

2.45pm: arrived at my house in SS3, where my parents dropped me off. i bid them farewell, before i realized the car keys and the house keys were still with them. bummerr....nasib baik ali ada kat rumah and i had a spare car key. masa tu la rasa bersyukur teramat sangat...seriusly i was relieved.

3.30pm: after mandi2 and everything coz i was like drenched from all the sweat, even my tie was wet....euwwww. so changed my clothes and sembahyang and everything, keluar balik to rumah jalan gasing (where else?) coz janji ngan kajun to go for our faculty get-together hosted by the Dean.

4.15pm: arrived at the blok kuliah where almost all of my saman kereta by the pak guard UM was obtained. they asked everyone to go into DK3. pergghhh...lama siot tak masuk DK3. masa 1st year it felt kinda big, skang nampak kecik je. not many were present, which kinda sucked coz i was hoping to see more of my coursemates. they had a talk by the dean, who delivered a kuthbah jumaat, but what he said for me was true. he's been through it all...aku yang baru 24 ni apa la tau. what really stucked to me was how he said to carry the image of a gradute with pride. no matter what people say...coz skang ni kan ramai grads yang menganggur. he said to always show professionalism, that even though u don't have a job...u have the right attitude to differentiate urself from those without a degree. aku yang ada degree ni pun kengkadang macam budak skolah so how the hell am i professional?? hehhehehe.......takpe, kat keje lain, balik umah lain....

5.30 pm: after all was said and done, biasalah...jamuan time. had some pics wit old friends and even bumped into wira. i knew him from the days of NVD. i found out he was planning to do chambering...after taking a break from law to go into the TV business. i learnt that he was working in TV3 and was involved in several english shows, the only one i remember being the Brand. seronok borak2 ngan wira coz i really respect the guy...sukahati dia je terasa nak buat apa dia buat. law and TV?? hehhehe...maybe ada gak connection...we got Ally, the Practice and not to mention the classic LA Law. so apa yang peliknya, rite?

6.15pm: kajun and tipie mintak tolong amik gambar diorang around the DTC area, which i berat hati mula2 tapi sebab member punya pasal...what the heck. so i became the official photographer for kajun & tipie. ok lahh..it was then aku sedar DTC looked so beautiful during sunset. mannn..u got to see it...

8.30pm: after going back to jalan gasing and mandi2 and sembahyang and everything...we decided to be little kids and check out the funfair they had at 12th College. hahhaha...lawak betul. lama tak main tikam2 ni. i got a wall clock and a small Doraemon for my troubles. that wasn't all...pastu pegi layan jap Bumper Car. wahhh..lama tak main bumper car. macam budak kecik pressing on the accelerator hentam orang lain which included tipie, aswad and azean. kesian pakcik sorang tu ngan anak dia...aku nak langgar pun rasa bersalah. what the hell, nak main slow2 pegi naik train tu laaaa...hehhehe....

10.00pm: fed-up with the carnival atmosphere, we head for Jamal (not the UM branch, which they set up during konvo). makan2 and everything...baru la balik.

11.00pm: mannn..it's been a tiring day. balik terus tido kat gasing. with that...my graduation day ended and also this blog which maybe some of you dah naik muak baca. baru la webjournal namanya.

so there. my graduation as how i remembered it after almost one week. it's been a blast and i don't regret anything. it couldn't have been better (well...maybe boleh...tapi saje sedapkan hati) thanks to everyone who was with me, even if i didn't list the name above. congrats also to all UM graduates class of 2004. it's been a long and bumpy ride...but heck...we got there anyway. my uni days is officially over...now back to work. sigh.

p/s: this blog was 3 days in the making sebab aku asyik stop sambung stop sambung sambil2 buat kerja. i don't care how it came out. janji it's off my chest and i've got sumthing on the record for me to remember (dah tua dah...)

o this message was brought to you by The Narrator @ 5:45 PM

o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o