Preliminary Exam: Done.

I'm still tired and sleepy and hazy about much of yesterday, but just wanted to log here that I successfully passed my preliminary exam. Yesterday. "Successfully passed" is the way I imagined saying it but, now, at the risk of sounding terribly vain, I'm going to have to confess that "aced with flying colors" is really the more accurate description.

In my field, the prelim is held when your ducks are pretty much all in a row. This means that, in the words of one of my Committee members, all I have to do here onward is "write my thesis, defend it, graduate and make [them] proud". Not a short or easy list by any means --- and I can never be sure of the last phrase --- but the good news is, I see that as permission to "get there" now. Finally.

Happy birthday to the King!

I don't know why, but perhaps in honor of Elvis's birthday today, I'm watching Clambake. Song and dance, Elvis (in a surprisingly demure role) and the ladies (nevertheless), Florida (or SoCal), and carrots and peanut butter (yep, my new 'thing') as my movie snack!: a good combination for a lonely, generally exhausted, marginally sniffling Me on a cold January day! Luckily, I'd just sent off my preliminary research proposal to My Advisor, so I don't feel too bad taking the break.

Happy Birthday, Elvis!