Since my last update...I had my dissertation defense! I wasn't too nervous for the presentation part (we've had to do so many presentations in the program that it's "old hat" now) but for the "Q&A" with the committee afterward, I didn't know what to expect (guests leave the room and it's just you and the committee members, they can ask anything about your presentation/dissertation contents/whatever). It didn't turn out to be very scary at all...then they sent me out of the room to "deliberate", then my advisor came out and shook my hand, saying "Dr. Doherty"...pretty cool :) So, I passed...still trying to get all the paperwork cleared with the grad school to be able to really say I'm official and graduating in August, but basically the hard part is behind me. I've been a student for 20 years, so it's weird to be entering this next phase in life...with a Big Girl Job.
Some pictures with my friends/fam who came to the defense:
"Fat Kids Club"...all defending this year, I'm proud of us!
After the defense, it was a week o' craziness trying to get our things for the move pulled together (thankfully, there wasn't MUCH work to do since the movers packed everything as part of our relocation package!) The weekend right before we left, we headed to Hearne to see Brad's dad's side of the family...his grandma (Mimi) turned 80 this past Saturday, so we missed her big birthday bash by one week :( it was good to be able to see her before our trip!
Monday was the big packing up day...it was a little awkward to just sit on our couch and watch the movers take care of everything...I wanted to help out with something, but it's all up to them. We had Whataburger for lunch...last time for awhile :-/ They arrived around 9 in the morning and didn't finish up till 8 pm! A big part of that was trying to fit the mattresses...they had 3 other households loaded into the same van, so we were the last on, and they underestimated how much stuff we have...whoops...they ended up wrapping up the mattresses in all sorts of waterproof things and putting them on an attachment off the back of the truck. This took awhile. We finished cleaning the apartment and just stared at them while they tried to figure it out.
Anyway, we finally go on our way and just made it to Dallas that night. Slept in and got on the road late the next day (this was a general theme for our road trip...) We had time for just one "fun stop" along the way, so we went to the Country Music Hall of Fame in Nashville. Also in Nashville, we did a Hotwire Hot Deal for our hotel, got a great deal on a 3.5-star hotel, and all they had left with a king bed was the "hospitality suite"...that thing was seriously bigger than our apartment that we just moved out of. It was glorious. Too bad we only spent about 8 hours in that hotel! Some pics from the trip:
It was our mission to load up on Shiner before we left TX...little did we know, there was a whole string of dry counties along our trip on 30 heading out of TX! We learned this little bit of trivia: the Texas side of Texarkana is a dry county, while the Arkansas side of Texarkana is in a wet county! Thank goodness the Arkansas side carried Shiner beer.
Swanky hotel room in Nashville. This place was great.
Wall of gold records at the Country Music Hall of Fame
Yummy Nashville BBQ
Finally in New York!
Our apartment door :) So exciting.
It was a long couple of days for the drive but we saw some pretty scenery along the way, and LuLu held up beautifully! (aside from having to get gas every 250 miles, bah...) Check out the next post for a Grand Tour of our apartment :)
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