The Night After

The plan was to go to The Hulk after my defense, but I only wanted to go to a matinee showing (I’m cheap, and I hate crowds). Unfortunately, the defense went about 20 minutes too long for us to make the last matinee (at 4:45 PM). Instead, we went straight to the Macaroni Grill for dinner, and then I dragged Andrew around the mall for several hours. (Oh, shut up. He needed some new shorts, so part of the trip was for him.)

I dragged him into the Build a Bear store (for probably the umpteenth time). He was a good sport, but I could tell that he was tired of taking me in there every time we went to the mall. So, I decided that it was time to put together a bear for myself. But what to do? Based on the day, it seemed appropriate to do a PhD-candidate bear. What does this entail? Well, we dressed the bear in grad-student clothes (a peasant top, shorts, sandals and glasses), and bought her a school bag (the kind that has a flap under which you can insert pencils and a calculator). Her name is Felicia , and she’s working on her thesis in my home office as I write this. (She even has her proposal defense talk in her bag with her.)