My defense...

It official! I passed my defense - or as my boss insisted on calling it, the "final examination". It went pretty smoothly considering all the chaos leading up to it (like last minute changes to the presentation),



and my committee seemed pleased with the talk, etc. I got a good number of questions (and I was able to answer them all), and some great feedback from the audience and from my committee.






The boss even bought champange and gave a toast.









Of course, it wouldn't have been the same without Macy to help me prepare and to give me a good-luck cuddle before I left.



Phil was there too, and that meant a lot! (So were my good friends Joel and Libby, also in the picture below, and Jamie Rae, and Stacy).



Now all that's left are corrections and getting my papers submitted...

Pressure...

Christos defends on July 25, so that means I'm next!!!

"Sunny" California...

Well, I am finally back from San Diego, welcomed back to Texas by the wonderful, heavy heat of May. It was such a relief to be warm again! San Diego is nice, but is too chilly for me this time of year.

The drive out was pretty good - we got to see pretty much everybody - Mom before we left (she came to the Ring Day activities); Dad, Sheila, Mam-maw and Papa in the Panhandle; Gran and Bill at Cline's Corner, NM (they drove up and met us there); and Justin in Dewey, AZ. Most of the drive was great - lots of interesting and beautiful landscape, new things to see...The last 8 hours was horrible, though. We were SOOOO happy to get to San Diego, finally. I didn't do much but work while I was there.

Work was good. I really enjoyed visiting the lab that I was in, and I learned a lot. I got some really great data (at least I think so, we'll see when it comes to writing the paper). For now, it's back to the grindstone here in College Station, hopefully to finish up by the end of the summer!

I have been told that the last 10% of anything you do is the hardest 10%.

If that is true, I am really up a creek, as my PhD has been rife with hardships, from my health to my progress to interpersonal relationships and everything in between.

I think I can feel that that end is near, but don't know if I should be excited or really scared....

The Ice Storm continues...

The University was closed AGAIN today - this hasn't ever happened in the 6 years that I have been here! My roommate, Dave, took these pictures this morning - it's worse than yesterday.

The end of an era

Tonight was my very last night to teach micro lab at my university; as I am near the end of my PhD, apparently I "don't have time" to teach anymore (at least according to my advisor). It was really sad to say goodbye to my classroom, and even more sad to say goodbye to my last group of students. They are so AWESOME! They really reminded me of why I'm doing what I'm doing - they're intelligent, dedicated, funny, down-to-earth, and fun. I had a really, really wonderful semester with them, and I hope they enjoyed it as much as I did.