Commencement! COMMENCEMENT!!

Yesterday, June, 6/12, I graduated from UCR with my PhD, and in the photo above, LB and I are all dressed up for the occasion.

Of course, I still have my dissertation to finish up, so I'm not officially a doctor yet. That didn't stop my research advisor, Tiffany, from referring to me as Dr. Lovejoy. When I reminded her about my dissertation not being quite done, she said that was just a "technicality" and that she felt confident in calling me a doctor. While I've always appreciated her faith in me, the dissertation feels like a pretty big "technicality"! I think when I have the dissertation signed off by the three members of my dissertation committee, I'll truly feel like a doctor.

But, despite the incomplete dissertation, I still enjoyed commencement, as you can see from all the photos below.

Here I am getting ready in the morning. Aaaahh, Starbucks coffee, thanks for all your help in getting me through grad school!
Lilybeth also got all dressed up in her pretty new sailor dress, a birthday present from Nannie Annie and Poppy. Her face in the picture below says, "Hurry up! I don't wanna be late for the graduation!"
Checking that Papa put her barrettes in correctly.
Pretty skirt.
Heading off to the ceremony. I had to arrive 90 minutes before it started to line up with the other grads.
The rest of my family came later. Here's Grandpa giving LB her ticket to the ceremony.
And this is LB's face when she found out the ceremony would be over two hours long!
Here come all of the professors!
And the bagpipe players (UCR students are known as the "Highlanders," hence the Scottish music.)
My family finds some seats.
Yah! My two best loves. And my two biggest inspirations for working hard and finishing up!
These next two photos are actually of LB killing time, waiting for the ceremony to end. All the PhD's got to walk or graduate first, which meant that after I walked across the stage, my family still had to wait around for another hour. They took LB over to the commons area to run around and read books. It's hard to sit still for two hours when you're two!

These next few photos are of me graduating / walking across the stage. Unfortunately, this is the view my family had of me walking:
Not so great. But fortunately, one of my professors, who was seated much closer to the stage, snapped these photos of me being "hooded" by Tiffany, a ritual that marks the conferring of my degree.

I met her on stage and handed her my hood. The hood is that kind of strange scarf thing that is hanging down the back of Tiffany's gown and represents her doctoral degree.
She placed the hood over my head.
And we left the stage together as two doctors!
At the bottom of the platform, we shook the chancellor's hand. To me, he said "Congratulations, Dr. Lovejoy," and to Tiffany he said, "Thank you for helping this student to become a doctor." I thought that was a nice touch and a good recognition of all the hard work she also put in over the last seven years of mentoring me.
After the ceremony, I met up with the family.
And also saw a couple more of my professors. This is Dr. Nunley, who was one of the examiners for my PhD qualifying exams.
And Dr. Tobias, the English department's graduate student advisor, and Dr. Yamamoto--she's the third member of my dissertation committee. My second member didn't attend the ceremony.
The back of my gown with the hood.
A closer shot.
And a couple of shots with Tiffany.
Big hugs! I couldn't have asked for a better mentor!
Unfortunately, I don't have pictures of me with some of my biggest supporters and inspirers, my parents! That's because those pictures were taken on the Lovejoy-Fordham camera by Tom, and the camera did not have its SD card in! I had forgotten to put it back in after downloading some pictures! What an unbelievably sh**ty time to forget! So although there are no pictures, I still want to send a big thank you out to my parents who always set a good example for me, teaching me how to work hard to reach my goals! And of course thank you for watching your granddaughter over the last two years, giving me lots and lots and lots of the time necessary to work on my dissertation!

And finally, a few shots of us heading home after the ceremony.
I am sooo sweaty here and my hair is plastered down to my head. That regalia is heavy and hot!
A photo of my name in the commencement catalog.
And just winding down after the big event.

Fish faces!
I am really hungry! Yummy, veggie burger!
Champagne and strawberries!