After defense pics

Here are two pictures that Irooshka took right after my defense:


with Crispin and Barbara...


...and with Crispin and Mimi.

I expect to have pictures taken with my wonderful fourth committee member (Nancy) at graduation.

Good times.

Dr. Gi. is in the house!

I AM A DOCTOOOOR!!

More later about it all, but I just defended today. It went well. I have the three letters now...wow.

Catching up and counting down

So, I haven't posted in a fairly long time. I have been busy thinking about several things at the same time, including the fact that I will defend my dissertation in exactly 10 days!

I have been reading over the whole tome I managed to produce to fix typos and formatting errors and simply remember what I wrote. My committee has given me almost no revisions whatsoever (just some minor stuff in the conclusion), and I am using this weekend to take care of that. Then, I'll need to prepare for the defense itself. Yikes, I have butterflies in my stomach when I think about it.

Meanwhile, I have also kept up with my daily modern dance classes at the UW, have been working as a research assistant for Phillip Thurtle and met regularly with a group of 9 students who are helping me set up my research on the Starbucks logo and Che Guevara image.

Since the beginning of the quarter, these awesome students have been reading and collecting data about both world-known images. We set up collaborative blogs for both the Starbucks and Che Guevara projects and I have to say the students are finding out really interesting stuff, and having fun in the process it seems!

Last week Irooshka came to Seattle to visit. We worked hard, but also played a bit. Highlights were a trip turned surreal photo-shoot to the Central District's signature grocery store, the Red Apple (as a 1980's soundtrack was playing in the background), and the screening of our new favorite HBO series The Riches.

Here are two photos of Irooshka:


with a felt scarf I made for her last summer...


...and with Jello at the Red Apple.