And so wags away a weary world...

I hate blogger. Just ate my post.

Anyway, I have risen from the ashes and find myself in Phoenix. Hopefully this summer with go better, though the weather is not exactly up to a fabulous start-- 60s and rain the whole time I've been home. Being home, graduation has obviously happened and I have joined the ranks of Thomas More Alumni. Comps went well, A all the way despite being up until 5am the night before with food poisoning from morte mussles (they're on the verboten list next to the morte noodles now). The exam itself was easy, got out an hour and a half early both times.

And the party? Party is painting it a little strong to be honest. We went to Portsmouth, stayed in a little hotel, and hit the beach. Beach is painting it a little strong too. It was more of a rocky overhang, but it was beautiful. We got there just after the sun set, when the sky was all cerulean and lavendar and deep deep blue. Against the dark water and the rocky ledge, it was like some sort of painting or a little piece of heaven. I'm an ocean girl, I always have been. I hadn't been back to an ocean for over a year, and I was suffering mightily from it. The same way that some people need to be in a physical church building every week, or need to see the sunset, I need the ocean. That's not to say it replaces God, but there is something so magnificent in the deep blue that buoys my very soul. I wish we'd spent three weeks on Moby Dick. One and a half is just not enough; Melville is too complex, his images to indirect and precise in the same instant. Oh well. Such is the way of things.

After comps came theses defenses, which went well as well. Hey, I got to mention King Arthur, Monty Python, and make everyone-- even Mr. Shea-- laugh. My personal favorite line of the night? [regarding a border fence]: "I think we can be open to people and not be open to cocaine. I don't know, it's just a theory I have." In the driest of deadpans. Oh yes, that would be MY sense of humor. Mikey wins the day though: "Can America form an Arthurian character? Is Jimmy Carter going to come back to save us?" also in the driest of deadpans.

And then, graduation. Sure, there was two weeks between theses and grad, but I had an incredibly busy schedule of Chick Flick Tuesday, Gossip Girl Wednesday, and Buffy Friday. So yes, I totally did no work after comps. So it goes, it's time honored. I swear. Graduation left me wanting. It was so typical, trite, normal. My education, my time at TMC was so atypical, like being trapped in a real life character study-- everything is magnified and examined and reexamined. And graduation was... just like everyone else. Well, not totally. I was able to see the faces of certain of TPTB during the ceremony, and never have a seen more sour faces-- perhaps we interrupted their tee time. Then there was the moment we were told "Partings are usually sorrowful, but not really today. Out plz, k thx." by the administration. I mean honestly, how dare you say that to me in front of my parents on MY DAY? Perhaps he meant well, but it sounded so crass and mean I couldn't help but be upset.

There was a point in the graduation, however, that I will remember all the days of my life. Dr. Mumbach stepped down as dean officially on graduation, after 30 years. She wasn't scheduled, but she gave a small speech anyway. She talked about how honored she was to have spent those thirty years doing everything, how she couldn't even take all the credit because look at where they had lured the rest of the faculty from. It was from her heart, and she was tearing as she said it, and when the juniors jumped to their feet in a thundering ovation everyone followed suit, and then she really did cry. We joke about her lectures, complain about her style,wonder what she was thinking sometimes, but we do love her, and I don't think she quite realized it. So I'm glad we gave her that.

So now home, and Starbucks, and Library Science. At least it's distance learning-- I will finally come up for review and get a raise! Maybe I can make shift, we'll see. I don't know that I really want to be a shift though. I feel like the go to barista-- I'm one of the only people who doesn't have a "zone"-- I bop around everywhere in the schedule. So we'll see.

Also, I don't care if he's my senator, I'm not voting for McCain. Not voting for Obama. Not voting for Hilary. I can't aid and abet any of these people in their quest for the White House. Ugh.

My, I've been away for a very long time. It's the nature of the beast that is TMC: it sucks up your life. Thesis presentation and defense was last week, comps the week before, full thesis two weeks before that, term paper last Monday, and a presentation tomorrow. But hey, they're being nice to the graduates.

Commencement is a week from today, and that scares me like nothing else. I've been in this little green world for four years (it's literally green now-- Spring finally made an appearance). It's hard to let go because it's so imminently comfortable, and I'm finally at the top of the heap, and now I have to go (If I had a dime for every time someone has said "Hurry up please, it's time" in the last two weeks I wouldn't need loans for grad school.) I suppose it's time to leave, and believe me, we've reached the point where for my own sanity I cannot be here any longer, but that doesn't make it easy. This is actually the first time I've been able to complete a program at the same school I started at. It's an interesting feeling. More interesting is the idea that I'll be an engaged bachelor in a week's time.

I'm purposely avoiding discussing the myriad of nasty things that have happened here in the past weeks. I don't want to think about it; I'm leaving in a week. The thing that pains me most is that I've hit the point of not caring. I can't let go and I have already all at once. People who are staying past next week are screaming blue murder about this that or the other thing and all I can do is shrug my shoulders. Am I being politic on purpose? Perhaps.

As an aside from the real world, Real ID has been extended to Jan. 2010, which means that everyone could still get on planes this morning. So yay for that. Boo for the thing not flatly being canceled yet. As always, Realnightmare.org has the articles and such. Another good website is the National Conference of State Legislatures Countdown to Real ID. They have links, facts, and figures to please even the most stubborn of modern men ^_^.