Well, friends. I did it.

I advanced to candidacy! I am officially a PhD candidate – also known as ABD, or “all but dissertation.” Sure, I still have years of research and work ahead of me, but this is a major milestone. It means my committee liked my proposal enough to approve my project (with some alterations, of course) and send me on my way to do my own research. It’s the real deal, now.

To be honest though, I don’t think it was me or my proposal that won them over. I think it was Luisa’s version of Teddie’s apple cake, which I made last night with apples from a certain someone’s mom’s yard. Not only did the cake make the room we were in smell wonderful, it drew raves from everyone who tried it. Which means you should try it too.

I wish I had more to write about, but I’m exhausted, so instead I’ll give you a pretty picture or two of some apples. And tomorrow I’ll be up in Los Angeles all day, so who knows how much I’ll be able to write then (although you never know). I promise though – we’ll be back on track with recipes I’m not swiping from other blogs soon enough. Thanks for all your positive thoughts and for sticking with me.

But now, I’m going to go celebrate. And sleep.

I feel like a heel. You’ve all been so friendly and excited about the posts I’ve made lately, and I want to keep things rolling! Keep the excitement (well, I think it’s exciting) going!

But I can’t write anything good tonight. You see, dear friends, I am defending my dissertation proposal at 9:00 a.m. tomorrow. If all goes well, I will be an official PhD candidate by some time tomorrow afternoon, what is known as “ABD” (all but dissertation). So tonight I am going to attempt to bake this lovely apple cake (I love the smell of bribery in the morning), get taken out to a surprise super-quick meal by the most wonderful certain someone, prepare the paperwork, review my materials, and go to bed at a relatively decent hour. So there’s no time for blogging. Not really.

I’ll be back tomorrow, though, on day 14 of NaBloPoMo. I hope I have good news. If not, I’ll try and at least have something good to eat. Wish me luck!

1. I had a wonderful, wonderful birthday. Thank you to all to helped make it lovely, memorable, and fabulous. And thank you to all those who have made plans to continue the festivities in the coming days and weeks! What an amazing bunch of people I have the honor to know and love.

2. Speaking of birthdays…

And another…

Oh, and what the heck. With the dough hook in action:

I realize in that last one it looks as if I’m mixing oatmeal (or something rather questionable), but I’m using the dough hook (I have a dough hook!) to make that multi-grain bread I mentioned a few posts down. Said bread is now cooling, which is why I’m posting a blog at nearly 1:00 am, rather than sleeping, which is what I should be doing!

But oh, look at that pearly white gorgeous piece of machinery! I love it so.

3. I no longer hate cilantro.

4. On Wednesday I will be making a quick jaunt up to LA and will be picking up some Le Marin butter (I hope).

5. I took my field exam last Thursday, and overall I think it went well. We shall see, but what’s best is that it’s done.

6. Did I mention I have some wonderful people in my life?

7. Holy gorgeous handmade tango shoes from Buenos Aires, Batgirl… now that’s a birthday gift!

8. My band, with the new guitarist and drummer, sounds better than ever! I can’t wait to play again.

9. And speaking of music, an old friend rang me up to see if I wanted to sit in with his jazz combo this summer.

10. A friend and professor is in full remission! She hasn’t been able to say this for five years, and she just found out. I saw her today and she told me the news – she looked so different, but it was so clearly a difference that came from the inside. It still makes my heart tighten a bit think about it, and I get such a good, happy feeling.

11. Dark gray salt caramels from Fran’s Chocolates. Buy them. Now.

Not so brief after all… and there’s more! For later…

You know what’s a lovely feeling? When you’ve been sitting for days, staring at your computer and piles upon piles of books and articles, trying to work on the answers to questions for your field exams (known elsewhere as comps or quals – essentially the last hurdle before the dissertation proposal), with no inspiration, nothing good or interesting or (oh dear) seemingly right coming out… and then suddenly, bloop! A surge, a breakthrough, a whole bunch of ideas spilling out quickly enough that you’re afraid if you don’t type fast enough you’ll lose some of them, and finally a feeling that, hey, this is pretty interesting after all! I like these questions, and I think I might like my answers even better! And maybe I am a little more knowledgeable in this area than I thought! Which would be good, since they’re testing me on my proficiency in this area and all. (This area, by the way, being cultural sociology, with specific emphasis on organizational culture, since I’m more of a social networks and organizations girl. The culture part comes in because I do love the study of cultural sociology and I want to work with it some more, only I want to do it my way, which means bringing in a little SNA and so forth. But that’s a story for another time.)

The point is: Phew. Because I was starting to really worry over here. When was that moment going to come? What if it didn’t? Now, of course, I don’t know how long it will last, but I’ll savor it while it’s here.

This moment brought to you in part by: Chet Baker, Stumptown coffee, and one of the chocolate cookies I made yesterday.