A Thesis Defended

I defended my theses on a balmy day in November. The timeline for that week was kind of insane. I received all corrections for the manuscript on a Thursday night, went to Nutcracker Market Saturday, and still managed to fit in 23 hours of work on the project from Thursday night to Saturday night around 1:30AM. I felt like I was in some strange time vortex and was back at A&M during finals week! Thankfully, it all ended with my thesis defense on that following Monday, November 13th. I visited with Dr. White and McNamara for a little over and hour. I had prepared hours more to discuss that we even had time for, and was relieved to discover the defense ended up being a positive experience filled with interesting conversations about topics I love. As fun as it was, though, I was thrilled when it was over and the stress was gone. Dr. White was so kind and even brought me a beautiful Chinese Evergreen plant as a graduation present! I had individually wrapped two glass hour glasses with gray and black sand. Both professors opened the gifts later, but really seemed to enjoy them. 

Dr. White's response: Thanks for a great defense conference yesterday, Kristin, and also for the gift, which Doris and I opened at our anniversary dinner last night and liked much. The wait-staff came over and asked if it really kept an hour’s time, whereupon I threatened to drink decaf till I could tell, but today I was at prison campus so still haven’t tested. In any case, what a good-looking and tasteful gift. I've always liked sand-timers since my grandmother had one to time her eggs. Also I've always been interested in something called a clepsydra, a water clock, which I bumped into in reference to how, when the ancients talked too long at table, the host could simply turn over the time-keeper to make one conscious. Maybe we can use the hourglass in future defense conferences!

I so enjoy Dr. White's emails and just had to include his response, since both he and Doris seemed to enjoy it so. Anyway, upon my return Sadie was waiting at home with Gammy and Granddaddy (about 3:30 PM). We took some pictures, then eventually headed out for a celebratory dinner at Zio's.

Yay! Thesis complete!

My beautiful plant from Dr. White and Doris

Sadie getting ready for dinner, wearing Mommy's shoes

Mommy, these shoes fit me perfectly!

One of the funniest events at dinner was observing Sadie's apparently natural love for olive oil and spices. I guess we should have not been that surprised since she eats, sprouts, salad, broccoli, and a whole host of other vegetables and delicacies that seem reserved for adults or food critics. She loooooved it. The other patrons seemed amused too as they watched the nearing two year old dipping one piece of bread after another in the green runny oil on the plate.

Mmmmmmm spices.

Is there something on my face?

Now for some salad!

After our dinner, we took Sadie to ride the escalator at Macy's. Granddaddy surprised me with a sweet gift when we walked by the Crocs kiosk. Sadie tried on several pairs of shoes, then I tried on some leopard flats. Granddaddy paid for them before I could blink! Thanks Granddaddy for a great gift! We then headed to Starbucks to meet James for some coffee and to celebrate a little bit with Daddy. Whoo hoo! So the timeline was as follows: Monday - Thesis, Wednesday - blood work, Thursday - gall bladder surgery! Phew! Big week!

Trying on some shoes!

Happy graduation shoes!