I picked up this poster at the Arbus exhibit at the Walker last July, and promised myself that I'd get it framed after I passed my exams. An albino, female sword-swallower seemed like an appropriate image for that sort of a milestone. Since my other, informal doctorate is in procrastination, it took me six months after exams to haul it to the framers and then another month to get it back. I think it’s going to reside in my campus office for the time being, unless it freaks out the students too badly.

On a related note: right after I passed, Clancy said she'd be curious to see how I felt about the exams process a year after the fact. It hasn’t been that long, of course, but right now, I remember the whole thing as fun. I find that extremely odd. Last summer and fall I actively hated the preparation process, but now I remember the luxury of it being my job to read. And I remember twice-weekly study group meetings, which were always reassuring. I loved the intensity of writtens, and my orals were a total smack-down hoot. Despite all that,there’s no way around the fact that exams, from start to finish, were long and tedious and grueling and immensely stressful. If I was married to a less understanding, less all-around-awesome man, I probably wouldn’t still be married. I suspect that I’m still seeing some health repercussions from them. Still, I’ve somehow come to remember them very fondly.