Boiling everything down from the past six years, and my post title, "climb the mountain ... see the mountain range" is the most appropriately concise way to reflect my current mindset. I thought that when I would finish, I'd be so checked out. Well, checked out is a common emotion, but now I'm just excited for my next steps in my own research as well as giving back to the community with more intentionality, and likely more effectiveness.
Before all that though, let's hone in on the actual celebration. When my defense was successfully achieved and I felt like it Alexander the Great's accomplishments were ant-like compared to mine, it seemed only appropriate to start off with a celebratory lunch.
...and no flimsy lunch either.
Oh, it started innocently enough. But when it was a wonderful Nebbiolo from a freshly opened bottle, it was surprisingly easy to say, "oh, just leave the bottle." After all, how many times does one defend dissertation?
Then there were the food selections. And with each selection, the sweet little reminder that anything I did was perfectly fine because, after all, how many times does one defend a dissertation?
So ... onward with the ... um.... 3.5 hour lunch.
You see, there was the house pate with balsamic reduction. This, my friend, was no pate squeezed out of a wrapper. Freshly made in-house, it was seriously one of the best pates I've had, which is saying something.
Then....wellllll, I never can resist a caprese salad with freshly made mozzarella. We'll just ignore that indulgence for the moment.
Now, onward to the primi. Do I go with the Sicilian meatballs or cioppino? However, before this became an actual problem, any sort of meat felt too heavy possibly because I was eating (and drinking) plenty. The veggie spring primavera won....
...and here is where the 3.5 hour lunch must end because, despite great effort, I just could not figure out how to eat a secondi. I really really really tried though.
After several hours of comatose behavior, I did manage to rally nicely with a bottle of champagne, a hand painted chocolate shell, and, of course, a few precious sugar crystalized rose petals from Paris.
I am taking two days off of celebrating to recover, and will resume on Saturday :)
