Another Visit to BC

So I was on campus for a second night in a row to pick up this box from the bookstore.

I've been meaning to buy a diploma frame for years. My parents had even given me money towards one. But I've never made it onto campus in time to hit the bookstore before closing and I refused to order a frame online because 1) they're heavy and the shipping is expensive and 2) I live within five miles of campus!

So I was all gung-ho about getting the frame last night when I knew I would be on campus for the art exhibit. The problem was the bookstore had plenty of frames, just none for pre-2003 diplomas. That's right, the year after I graduated, BC changed the size of their diplomas into a more stanard, smaller size. I waited patiently at the bookstore for 15 minutes, even though I was now running late for the exhibit, because the BC bookstore staff were sure that they had the right frames out back. This required finding a person that knew exactly where the frames were stored, someone who had the key for the storage trailer and someone who had to go out to the trailer to lug one inside the store.

As it turns out, they didn't have the frame I was looking for in the end. But they promised to call me the next day once they requested it from their warehouse. Sure enough, the BC bookstore came through and let me know today at work that my frame would be ready and waiting for me. Kudos to them for going through all the trouble last night and today to get it for me.

When I got home, the first thing I did was remove my diploma from the cheap Target frame it had been sitting in:

There's a back story to my diploma. The year after I graduated, I kept the diploma stored in the envelope it came in, flat between the wall and my bed frame. I came home one day to my room and could smell something foul. Turns out that my roommate at the time's kitten managed to pull the diploma flat on the floor and had promptly peed and pooped on it. As in, the symbol of my roughly $140,000 education was now covered in animal waste.

Luckily, the diploma was covered by the envelope so no poop touched it. But as we all know, liquids do soak through paper. And this is why my diploma from BC has cat pee stains on it:

One would think that I could request a new copy of the diploma from BC. But as I mentioned above, this was the last year diplomas were issued in the oversize shape. And I also remember hearing that the calligrapher who had handwritten each graduating student's name also retired that year. So rather than trade my original diploma for some generic one, I choose to embrace it's uniqueness, stain and all.

And now that it's in a pretty (gigantic!) frame, maybe people will be too busy staring at the lithograph of Gasson Hall to notice any funny stains.