paging dr. troka, paging dr. troka

the day after aly, nic, and ro left, jes and i made the long trek on the A train to JFK airport to catch a plane to Atlanta.
we got to the airport with plenty of time but were taken aback at the anger hissing from most people. because of the terrible weather in the midwest, and then later along the eastern seaboard, lots and lots of folks had been in the airport for a really long time. people were yelling and shoving and pushing. it was bonkers.

we finally made it through security and set ourselves up in some of these recliner like massage chairs. you put in a dollar and it gives you this amazing back massage. i loved it. jes didn't love it. here is a picture of jes in her chair:



our flight was supposed to leave at 5:40pm. we got on the plane about 6:30 when they told us that we were ready to go but all we needed was our pilots. long story short, four hours later (for reals), after many lies, some snacks, the movie "man of the year" (not good) and (thank god) a vodka and tonic, they cancelled the flight. we were off the flight and in line to re-book at 11pm. we were about twelve people back from the front. we got up to the agent at 2am at which time he re-booked us for a flight that was scheduled to leave at 11am on thursday morning. the idea of having to take a two hour train ride home made us both cry a little so we called a car and we were home in our beds, with our kitties by 3am. our alarm went off at 8am, the car got us at 9am and we were back at the gate for our re-booked flight at 10:30am. we boarded the plane at
12:30pm, sat there until 3:30pm and finally touched down in Atlanta at 6:00pm or so. we got our rental car (PT cruiser yall) and headed to el myr. there i had the best fish burrito in the world and could only drink one pint of PBR b/c I was so tired.

Now we had planned this trip so i could TURN IN MY DISSERTATION and so that jes could use the career services at the law school at emory to search for a summer internship in Atlanta. I had planned on gathering all my signatures on Thursday, but that all had to be re-scheduled for Friday since I spent most of Thursday sitting on a plane or in an airport. I was a little bit nervous b/c my advisor was leaving town for the weekend on Friday afternoon, but I kept a postitive attitude and hoped for the best. jes had pretty much mapped out the day in an hour by hour schedule. i love her for that. we first went to java monkey to meet up with my advisor, dr. kim to get her signature. jes let me know what time we had to leave there to get to our next appt. on time. here is a picture of dr. kim and me:



she was so chill about everything and after she signed four thousand copies of shit, she made me stand up and she held my hands and then she said all this nice stuff that made me squirm and then cry and even jes teared up. it was nice. i am really excited b/c she and saralyn are going to hood me at graduation and neither of them have done that before. GO TEAM!

next we were off to layli's house to get her signatures. her house smelled of satsuma so i was instantly invigorated. we got her signatures, chatted briefly, and then headed off to our next meeting. but not before we took this pic:



as we drove away, jes briefed me on our next stop and said "i feel like we are on the amazing race." and race, we did, back to campus where jes stopped off at the law school and i went to a doctor's appointment. of course we got there just on time and i got stuck behind this fucknut in the parking deck that SERIOUSLY was going one mile an hour. jes said she was going to unleash some of her pent up flight delay rage on them, but luckily, we found a spot and headed out.

after my appt. i met up with jes, and we headed to get my third and final signature from saralyn. she was real cute too and said she really liked my diss. i was like "would you tell me if you didn't like it?" and she said "i wouldn't be signing off on it if i didn't like it." so that was nice. she is the head of the office of lgbt life on campus so we made sure our picture together was totally gay:



i've got a pretty good looking committee, don't i? they are smart too.

so that was the easy part, sort of. next up was a woman named queen. she is the woman who works in the graduate school and who you turn your five copies of your dissertation into. i was very worried about queen. i pictured her pulling out a ruler and when she found my margins were wrong, she would hit me with it. of course, none of that happened. i had all the right forms signed in all the right ways and all the right copies and after i filled out some other paperwork, she took my diss. simple as pie. here is a picture of her, jes and me:



after she took all the copies off my hands i really wanted to kiss her on the mouth, but i don't think she rolls that way. now i guess the dean of the graduate school still needs to sign off on it, so they could demand that i reprint some pages or something, but for the most part I AM DONE WITH MY PH.D.

can i get an amen?
amen.
i graduate in may. i can't wait.

i don't remember what we did after that, but later on in the day, we met up with christina and nikki for some celebratory salsa and margaritas at taqueria del sol. then we went back to sarah and kim's and chilled. here is a picture of their dog ruthie engaging in a little interspecies love with the stuffed animal we got her:



overall, it was a great trip. i got to see lots of folks i love, and turning in the diss has taken a load off my mind. but honestly, i don't feel any different and i still have no job come wednesday even though i do have a ph.d.

oh bother.

on a happier note: last night jes made the most divine snack and so simple: a bartlett pear cut in half and cored. drizzle honey on it and top wiht walnuts. SO DELISH- try it!