What a wonderful weekend! I flew into Denver for a few days for my big thesis defense! I was pretty nervous because I didn’t have the proper time to prep for my powerpoint before actually leaving on Thursday night. I arrived late and my dad and his wife picked me up – while waiting at the arrivals area I saw this funny guy with his abacus I wonder what was going on with that aside from the obvious. After visiting with my parents I crashed hard and woke up at 5am Denver time to finish putting together my presentation and practicing it. I have to awkwardly practice aloud in order to ‘get comfortable’ with saying phrases and having a general ‘schpeel’ – my dad’s cats were not amused with my presentation for them at 6am. Until I realized my fancy presentation remote had a built in laser – then I gained their undivided attention.
I plan on writing a post when I have my diploma about my graduate process and thesis journey, but briefly I’ll discuss the defense. I had three amazingly brilliant women committee members all with an interest and background in feminism. Needless to say, they proceeded to point out that I ‘tip-toed’ around the gender issues in my paper – which is 100% true. I’ve had trouble ‘owning’ the feminist literature I have read and it was difficult to convey that I felt comfortable with it as it is pretty overwhelming. But, thank God/goddess/the stars, I passed with minor revisions. This means I just have to add about 4 very small comments/statements to my paper and then I can submit it to the graduate office and I am finally a master of economics (ha).
After my defense I saw my mom for lunch and saw her new office and said hello to a lot of old co-workers that I love. I worked as an intern in my mom’s office all through high school and undergrad and these people watched me grow up. One very funny comment one of the guys made was that for a time he would always hear my mom saying ‘oh for god’s sake Brianna!’ I had some tumultuous years and believe me everyone knew what I was up to!
Then I saw the lovely, Amanda Anderson at Thompson & Co salon in the Washington Park neighborhood. I decided after catching a glimpse of my hair in the mirror last week that it had to go. So I just gave her the general length requirements and let her do her thang. She did the best job and I have gotten compliments from literally everyone on it. Even all my co-workers had to come and see me once they heard I chopped off my hair. It was bizarre having such a major change after so long of not really doing anything exciting with my hair. (Those hair school days seem like another life sometimes)
That night we watched Django – it was really good. The Dude has been refusing to watch it because he says ‘he’s not ready.’ I’m not sure what that means, but it definitely is a movie you have to be prepared for. I’m a Tarantino fan though so it was another one I’ll add to my fan-boy list.
Saturday as luck would have it, Alisha Rice at Th’ink Tank had a very last minute cancellation and was able to get me in to work on my ‘epical’ fantasy sleeve. I don’t know what was going on, but I sat like a champion and was able to get about 5 hours in and finished a lot of the tattoo. My arm is very very swollen and swore today. I always heal my tattoos with Saran Wrap and it makes it easier/more comfortable for me to ‘go on’ with life. I had so much fun talking to Alisha for the whole afternoon and now I’m a lot closer to finishing this enormous project on my arm.
Then I met up with a wonderful friend for a very tasty cocktail at PF Changs – we were in the suburbs at Belmar so don’t be judging me about drinking there. It was great to catch up, but I realized I do miss so many of my friends from Denver. More of you Denver peeps will be required to come out now so I can show you Chicago!
Sunday I said goodbye to my Poppop and met up with my mama for some great family Mother’s Day feasting. My plane was delayed about half and hour, but I met some really awesome people on the flight home. I was seated in business class last minute and it was AWESOME. Monday has been long and I cannot wait to climb into bed and snuggle with my family that I missed all weekend.
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