I was sitting in the afternoon light yesterday, stirring a bowl of frosting, when it suddenly sunk in that I never have to take another test again! There’s gauntlets aplenty in the academic life, but no more in this particular format. Unless I eventually lose my mind and take the LSAT again, but that’s a long-way-off-and-maybe-never.

But I get ahead of myself. Everybody told me I should celebrate on Friday, and I certainly didn’t disagree. But I had no idea what I wanted to do, either. I didn’t want to go Out or to any parties, because the oral exams had flipped my introvert switch. I didn’t feel like drinking, because I’ve been resorting to one-beer-in-the-evenings for the past five weeks in order to sleep, with the consequence that I suddenly associated beer with exams. And I didn’t feel like drinking anything harder. So Mister Husband was put in charge of the occasion, and we went on a date.

“A Date” ended up meaning Cecil’s Deli for their famous reubens and a trip to the Mall of America Aquarium. (Because of course there are sharks in the basement of MOA. Where else would they be?) We hadn’t been before because I was afraid it would be really cheezy, but it was actually a pretty good aquarium for it’s size (which is larger than you’d think). Better than the Great Lakes Aquarium in Duluth, and almost completely empty because of the time of day we went. So we lingered in the tunnels, watching sharks and sting rays and loggerheads swimming above us. I got to pet juvenile sting rays, who seemed to like it, and watch the pups in the nursery.

Then we went to Williams Sonoma for cookie cutters. (Turns out their holiday pancake molds also work really well for cookies.) When we got home, there was a congratulatory monster sequoia disco inferno poinsettia from my parents waiting outside the door.

And then C and I spent most of yesterday baking: