Ph.inishe.D.

I valiantly defended my dissertation against my vicious examination committee yesterday. Actually, they were extremely pleasant. I was really nervous about my dissertation seminar, but it actually went very well (thanks to Microsoft Office 2007 Powerpoint speaker tools). To celebrate, my wonderful advisor Patricia D’Amore took the lab out for dinner.

Now that I have my PhD, I will finally get invited to all those exclusive parties that only PhDs get invited to. I also made the deadline to attend Harvard’s commencement this year. Bill Gates will be the speaker – which is an ironic choice, since he dropped out of Harvard and all, only to become (even more ironically) the world’s richest man. At least it’s not as ironic (I’m not sure if that’s the right word) as Brigham Young University’s commencement speaker today.

Ironically (irony is today’s theme), I was extremely distressed last night, even though I had just successfully defended my three-week-old, sub-100-page dissertation and eaten the first non-tofu meal I had in weeks. Piper is staying with me while her owner finds a place to live, and minutes after I got home and collapsed on the couch, Chairman Meow pried open the screen door and Piper escaped. It was cold and rainy last night, and I was worried sick that she was cold and wet and hungry and/or got hit by a car. Plus, she is deaf – so it’s not like I could call her or anything (not that cats ever come when you call anyway). I put up flyers all over the neighborhood. Then someone called this afternoon and asked if I found my cat, because it was spotted at a party last night. I hurried over to the apartment where the party was. Apparently, she followed a bunch of guys home and was the life of the party they threw last night. So instead of being cold and wet and hungry, she was hanging out with Northeastern students (and probably doing Jell-O shots) all night. Oh well – cats will be cats.