Take two, and call me in the mornin'

Last week I had the pleasure of sharing a momentous occasion with my extended family. It was graduation week for me from Medical School and Jaynah and I had a fantastic time hosting family and friends during the festivities.

In preparation, I was psyched that I actually had some time to get to many of those projects that the farmboy in me had been pleading me to find time for. So after some gardening, landscaping, pressure washing, painting and some carpentry work it was great to welcome everyone for a visit.

After we passed on the baseball game due to tornadoes and hail, we had a great time catching up with classmates at our graduation reception and banquet. Open bar = classmates that were only a legend showed up. Great time, food and company.

The hooding ceremony is a separate event only for the School of Medicine graduates and their families where awards voted on by the class are given to outstanding students and faculty. It is held the day before graduation and is a lot more intimate than the full graduation ceremony with the entire MCG crop of graduates from nursing, denistry, physical therapy, etc. At the hooding ceremony we receive our doctoral "hoods" which aren't really hoods but a funny looking sash time thing.

Before I left, my brother wanted to take some pictures of me. He's gotten into photography recently and has had Excalibur on loan. I really liked his idea for this shot.

Before Hooding, we had our official class picture, in front of the perfect Old Medical College which you might recognize from my previous post.

After the class picture it was time to line up in ABC order. Despite a class of 180, it took almost no time because it was easy to find our first year Gross anatomy lab groups and then get in between the groups that were at cadavers on either side of us in the lab way back in '05

My man Tim above, recently married, and bound for the Wake Forest Pediatric program and I have been through a lot since the depths of UGA biochemistry hell in the '03, physics lab, genetics, and oh yeah the entire Medical school application process, and the medical school after that. It was fantastic that we both ended up at MCG, and with the name Moore, we started out in the trenches in the anatomy lab together. Big day for both of us.

I recognized a few people on the way into the auditorium.

Mom and her boys, ready for some baby back ribs.

The Morgan Men, blue eyes for the lot of us.

Lining up before graduation with my brothers in arms. R to L : Dr. Vanags (Duke Neurology), Dr. Green (Wake Forest Radiology), Dr. Moore (Wake Forest Pediatrics)

Almost 1000 graduates, every name was called to get their diploma which was great. Medicine was last so there was lots of time to kill. I wish I'd had my Blackberry a few days sooner.

My Dad found me as we were walking in and waved, then he lost me. It was hilarious to watch him try and get the attention of a random Dental student for about 10 minutes. He took lots of pictures of this Dentist as well. Finally my brother called me, we had a chuckle and he walked across the arena and turned my Dad 45 degrees to the left. Hilarious.

Grabbing the diploma before they changed their mind. I've never been on the big screen before.

3 Generations: (c/o '84, '09, '44)

We had to repeat the cross-handed shake:

White coat ceremony 10/05

Fishing buddies.

Glowing

I love these Hambys.

Another thumbs up to my brother, Ben

All that for a piece of paper. It was worth it.

Work Hard, Play hard.