Thank you, thank you, thank you...
First of all, I want to thank all the wonderful people of this small online community who have emailed and blogged congratulations. Jill with a spy in the audience and direct sms connection, is quoted by Lisbeth and Dennis, who reminisences over his own defense. Reading that description I can see why Stuart really considered having his student arrange the kind of grand occasions like the traditional Doctor Dinner, rather than just let them lose on their own with all that loose adrenalin in the body. Mark is the first to use Dr. Mortensen (and later Dr. Torill, which is really a cute version I could learn to like), while Esther, who gave me some really useful information for the test lecture, and who has some pictures on her site that I swiped happily for illustration, found the article on my swordfighters.

And there have been emails: from Noah, who should be in New York, greetings from somewhere else entirely, obviously still living out of his suitcase, the academic nomad. Nick wants me to go on breathing after the defense as well - I am doing my best Nick - and Pattie Belle Hastings sends her greetings and wonders when exactly I will be in NYC. For those who might wonder: I have ordered the tickets, and I'll set up base with my NYC connection from October 17th until November 9th.

If I should try to list the people who wished me luck, it's too much of a job. I'll just choose one special one to represent all:, Francis, who always signs "your fan, Francis", something that tickles me no end.

An other wonderful result of defending the thesis is the greetings streaming in from people I never knew about, the people I thought had forgotten me, and the people I have missed for years, silent little threads of grief connecting me to the joyful memories. The greetings and the words following the excuse to write makes it clear to me that the memories are shared and the little threads are still quietly connecting us: too strong to be broken, despite being too thin to pull each other closer in the face of the demands of our lives.

That is perhaps the best part of the entire experience: The warmth that has surrounded me from so many parts of the world.

But one email said: I am waiting for the BIG description! Go girl, go!

Susana... I am working on it! I promise, there will be details; nasty, gritty details.
(I am just going to finish this bottle of pink champagne that survived last night...)