Adventures with Dr. Lady Cutie Troublemaker

Look over in the sidebar under "This and That." How many days until internship ends?

Yesterday, I got this e-mail:

Hi Abby,

Congratulations.

Your submission has cleared all of the necessary checks and will be delivered to UMI. If you have questions in the future about the status of any orders for printed copies or the publication status of your manuscript, please contact ProQuest/UMI Customer Service.

Your official graduation date is August 31, 2005 and your degree will be posted to your university records on this day.

The Graduate Recorder

Today was the final luncheon honoring all the interns in my program. We were warned that we were going to be "roasted," but it wasn’t too harsh. I was given several gag gifts, including Boston Baked Beans, Grits to remember the South, a little ribbon for participation, since I lived in Midtown and actually saw the city while I was here, a picture of a slum since Boston is so expensive, and some crime tape to remember the little incident that happened across the street. Kinda cute. I also got my certificate of completion. It’s really big! I know this is dumb, but I wish it were smaller, so I could just stick it in a file. I’m not hanging this massive thing on the wall! I’m still proud I got it though.

I have two more days of work, which will mostly be finishing up paperwork and logs. Then I have four days here hanging out with kind of nothing to do except pack. Then Aaron gets here, and we can play a little for about five days before we head out.

I got my Oberlin Alumni Magazine today. I’m in the alumni update section, picture and all. What’s also weird is that there is this article about how for years, Oberlin has graduated more future PhD’s than any other college in the country. It’s funny because I’m not even getting my PhD in an area I studied there. It was just a really good place to become a curious, life-long learner. I think they also recruit that type to begin with. I was lucky to go there. My mother was the one who insisted I visit, and after seeing the hippies chopping broccoli in the co-op and the hundreds of Steinways in the practice room building, I was in like Flynn. I’m glad she dragged my ass up there. At the time, I was like, "I am NOT going to the middle of Ohio for college." But in the end, that’s what happened. I’m so glad it did. Not only that, but my parents paid for it. (No, none of those insane loans have anything to do with undergrad!) Not only was it a great place to learn, it was groovy as hell (see Fury and the Sound for more on that).

Maybe it’s nerdy to be so into where I went to school. I don’t care. Many Obies are too cynical to be boosters like me, but that’s just my way. Doesn’t mean I’m giving them any money or signing up for the freakin’ planning committee or anything. I just liked it. It was a good place to be. Lots of grads end up in NYC, Boston, Chicago, Portland, and SF. I’ll be around a ton of them in my new neighborhood. I’m pretty excited about that.

And I’m VERY excited about being done with this PhD thing. It’s been hard as hell!

My Supervisors

10 more days of internship. TEN MORE DAYS!!! I will have a Ph.D., a six-figure (yes SIX-figure) student loan debt, and a world of Memphian experience behind me, plus all that stuff I did in Indiana. I can’t believe it’s all finally ending. It’s been a REALLY long year. There’s still so much paperwork to do. Case conceptualizations and logs and evaluations and such. I hate paperwork, and I picked a terrible field for it. We have to document every stupid thing. I’m about to head into supervision. I’m really happy to not have too many more meetings with this one. I can’t go into it, but trust me on this one. I dread every meeting.

I just e-mailed a PDF of my completed dissertation (with all required revisions) to my chair. I’m particularly proud of my copyright page. $45? I won’t pay you no stinking $45 to copyright my work. I’m way more hip than that! Here’s the ladybugged version:

I sure hope he’s happy with all he sees so I can just submit it. Cross your fingers! 

Now for some sort of treat, then I have to get cracking on yet another psych report! Will the fun ever start?!

Ever feel like life is moving too fast for you to even stop and ponder it? That’s now for me. I’ve been working like a dog recently. Long hours, lots of reports. No rest for the busy. Then Friday night was amazing: the QAC meeting, followed by an amazing performance and a little socializing. Then yesterday, I met Aaron’s son for the first time, and we spent the day at the zoo and teaching the boy’s boy about Memphis barbecue. They ended up spending the night because it all took a long time (plus, Zach was really enjoying the Wallace and Gromit I was sharing with him). They got the bed. I got the couch. Man, my couch is pretty, but it’s just a terrible place to sleep. This morning was the downtown Blue Plate then the Peabody Ducks and a brief tour around downtown Memphis. Millions of pictures were taken. Many thoughts were had. I’m not sure I’ll ever finish writing about it all, and no way I’m leading them to the "Future Posts" graveyard over there on the right. The short version is that I have had a few great and exhausting days. I haven’t been to the grocery store or the gym in a week, and I am more behind on paperwork than any human should be! The take-away points I would have liked you to take away from reading the numerous entries I was planning to write but probably won’t are thus:

• Your good deed for tomorrow is to go to the Queer Action Coalition’s protest at 4:30

What: Queer Action Coalition Rally at Love in Action Head Quarters
When: 4:30-5:30pm Monday June 27th,2005
What you can do: Attend the rally and/or publicize this event to your friends and family and get in touch with your local politician here.

Queer Action Coalition invites all interested members of the public to show their support for the youth going through the Love In Action program Refuge. Refuge is a program that aims to change the sexual orientation of youth and adults through "Bible based reparative therapy". Come and show your support on Monday for open and honest dialog and for all people affected by this issue. This rally will be fun!! We also encourage all those that couldn’t make it to the previous rallies to come to this one. The more people the stronger the message.
4780 Yale Road, Memphis, Tennessee, 1.5 miles north of I-40 on Austin Peay Hwy. Click here for directions.

• Peterson Toscano’s Doin’ Time in the Homonomo Halfway House was amazing. I just went because it was relevant. I didn’t know it would be such a high-quality production. Peterson is a great communicator, a great storyteller, and he seems to have a great understand of the culture from which people come. He sees the intention behind people completely unlike him. He’s struggled, and so he has compassion. It’s a rare thing to see, and I thank him for sharing that with me and the rest of the audience. EJ wrote a proper review. I am hoping I will find some time to do the same later this week.

• The Memphis Zoo is MUCH more excellent than I was expecting (except the aquarium, which is lame). I had no idea there was so much there, and I can’t believe I live so close and hadn’t been.

• Nine year-olds tell a lot of long stories, and I’m not used to listening to them! Aaron’s a great dad.
• There is a limit to the number of times I can watch those ducks do their THANG!