It’s been quite a big ten days or so for me. Here’s a recap:
Two weekends ago, I was in Portland, Maine with Amy, celebrating our two year anniversary. I’d always wanted to go to Maine, as I’d heard it was a beautiful part of the country and a place I likely would not visit often (if at all) if not for Amy’s companion travel benefits through AirTran. As we discovered right off the bat, Portland is a beautiful city. Our hotel was right downtown, mere blocks away from shops and restaurants, which, because of a local city ordinance against chains, were mostly locally owned. It was very refreshing not seeing a McDonald’s or a Macy’s. We both were able to find some great buys, and the food was great. All the hype surrounding Maine lobster is true: it’s that good. As for the people of Portland, three words describe them: Nicest. People. Ever. No joke, everyone we chatted with, from servers to boutique managers to bar tenders to our hotel shuttle driver, was easy-going, friendly, and warm.
We were supposed to fly back that Sunday, but the afternoon flight out of Portland was completely full, so we were forced to stay another night in Maine. Damn. This picture was from the ferry ride we took to one of the islands around Maine where we had some clam chowder, chili, and some microbrew IPA. In a word, yum.
We were able to fly back to Atlanta the very next day. After getting some lunch on the hour-long car ride from the airport, we stopped by to pick up the newest addition to my household. Meet Oreo.
She’s a lab mix who was abandoned at a vet’s office outside of Atlanta. She and the rest of litter were taken care of by a friend of Amy’s for a few weeks. Oreo is a sweet, affectionate pup who’s about 3.5 months old. Amy figures now that I’m done with my school work and have virtually no friends left in Tally, she’d be a welcome companion. She was right. As Mike says, Oreo is “too cute.”
While in Portland, I got an email from a school saying they had an opening and that I should contact them if I was interested in the position. Um, SHyeah! Fortunately, I was able to get together a cover letter and found a copy of my current CV online (amen for Gmail’s archives) and sent that off right away. I drove home early Tuesday morning, unpacked, and got Oreo situated in her new digs. She was amazing on the five-hour car ride here: completely calm and low-key, lying peacefully in the front seat the whole time. That afternoon, before my serving shift at 228, I had a two-part phone interview with said school, which I thought turned out pretty well.
The next day, I get the long-awaited email from the manuscript clearance advisor: my dissertation was approved! Halle-freakin’-lujah!! Finally, after two months of revisions and paperwork, “Form and Style in the Music of U2” was done and done. That day, I also picked up my cap, gown, and hood for the graduation ceremony. Only, much to my disappointment, there was no cap. I mean, really the only reason I did this whole Ph.D. thing was for the damn floppy hat. So I had to go back to campus the next day and pick one up. Luckily, they had one in my size, so after several trips to campus and $120 later, my graduation regalia was complete.
Amy drove into town late Thursday night, so we slept in on Friday morning before taking Oreo out with us to lunch at Momo’s. Yum. My parents flew in that evening, and from the airport, we went straight to dinner at Rubie Sky. Again, yum.
Finally, the big day had arrived: Graduation Day. I’ll spare you the details of the ceremony, except that the guest speaker sucked and that Dr. Clendinning was probably more outwardly excited about my graduation that I was, which was a lot. It was cute to see her smiling and looking back at me as we walked up the ramp for the hooding. There were two parts during commencement that I welled up. The first was just after President Wetherell conferred the doctoral students our degrees and declared, “You are now graduates of Florida State University.” Hell. Yeah. The second was at the end of the ceremony, when Wetherell asked the new graduates to thank those who have helped us the most, particularly our parents. Indeed, I can’t thank mine enough (but that’s another entry altogether…this one’s long enough already). After the ceremony, Amy, my parents, and I hung out at my place and had some lunch. We then went to Marie Livingston’s for an early dinner with Dr. Clendinning. Yum yet again. After dinner, we just chilled at home. It’d been a loooong day.
We took some pictures Sunday morning, and then I went to mass with my parents (I love that “Unconquered” statue).
After mass, we met Amy for lunch at The Red Elephant. You guessed it: yum. Amy then headed back to Atlanta, I dropped my mom off at the airport, and my dad and I played some tennis for the first time in months. I was way rusty, but it was nice to get back on the court, and especially nice to hit with my dad again. We went out to dinner afterwards (not quite as yum), and the comedown finally hit me. I was exhausted; it was a busy weekend that just flew by.
My dad left for Houston early yesterday morning. I worked last night and managed to pull in a nice handle of cash for a slow Monday night. Which brings me to today (finally). I just found out (literally, five minutes before typing this entry) that I’ve got a second phone interview next Monday, this time with the whole music theory search committee. Whew. Sweet. Yikes. Finally, a lead on a job. The way I see it, it’s great to finally get an interview, but at the same time I’m already quite nervous about it. I don’t want to blow it, ‘cause it may be the only lead I get for some time. Here’s to hoping it turns out for the best!
Christopher Endrinal 