Gradmutation, Mooving, and Substitutions

I am sure that all you blog stalkers were missing the graduation posts. Well, it's your lucky couple of weeks! Those of us on the quarter system are just starting to get prepared to don the most ridiculous outfit people seem to take seriously (any opportunity to wear academic regalia is an opportunity to snag!) and get our pomp on.

Check it:

What it is.

I'm getting a little bit excited, I won't lie. The quarter will be over, I'll be hanging out with my mom and younger sister for a few days, and I'm really excited to meet everyone's families and for people to meet two of the most important people in my life! It's going to be a celebration.

Commencement is on June 9, after I proctor an exam that morning and grade it that afternoon (unless I can bribe another grad student to do it instead... any takers? Seriously...). But the real fun is going to be on the following day when we have a graduate group party. My adviser will say nice things about me, I'll get a little engraved cowbell, and I'll feel pretty great about myself.

It's a strange graduation because, well, I won't be getting my degree. So I'm going to be a Mistress of Science* with that asterisk denoting my expected conferral date of September 2011. I don't really get a break from grad school, so it's not really the end or beginning of anything. I will be back on campus the following week working as a grad student researcher and studying for the preliminary exam. That's the thing about grad school. It never ends.

Never-the-less, I get to wear a hood and funky sleeves! ...Think how excited I'm going to be when I get to wear some stripes!

NEXT: Mooving. I realized today when my upstairs neighbor was quite possibly running on a treadmill in tap shoes that I will be out of my little apartment of love, the Nat Flat #1, in less than a month! That's all I have to say. YAY.

Finally, a few substitutions to my 24 before 24 list! #8. I'm doubting that I'll learn how to crochet and crochet well enough to make a blanket by Thanksgiving. So, I'm cross-stitching a birth record. I have a mean satin stitch! #21. Instead of seeing the San Francisco Ballet, I'm going to hear the San Francisco Symphony. Smiling. That's what I'm doing right now.