Catching Up, Rites of Passage Rituals, Identity, and Cosplay

Scrolling back through this blog it looks like I haven't written a post since September. I'm not sorry. I have entertained you with videos of my escapades with TPN and I managed to double the length of my dissertation in one semester - directly leading to my graduation. That's right, I am now officially Dr. Krista-Lee Malone. 

Apparently this surprised a few people. Examples of responses upon my announcement:

"Wow, I wasn't sure you were going to finish."

"It's about time!"

"Really?"

But it's ok, because I can now say this:

And then the next question: "How does it feel?"

It feels a bit weird. I started school when I was 4 years old and I have been consistently enrolled ever since. Granted some of those years were part-time because of job/financial concerns, but my primary identity was always student. Now I'm a scholar/researcher/lecturer/teacher. I'm not used to it. 

The rite of passage ritual (graduation ceremony) helped though. These are not, however, generally exciting, so just the highlights: I was the first grad across the stage and promptly started getting texted and tweeted, and our Chancellor, Mark Mone, encouraged cheering and tweeting during the ceremony (good call).  

Despite all this, I have been having fun with all the Dr. Who references. Maybe this is part of the psychological transition? I make a bunch of jokes about being "the Doctor" until reality sets in?

While I'm on the topic, I really want to cosplay the current and twelfth doctor (as portrayed by Peter Capaldi) but I am having a bit of a roadblock with the jacket. Suggestions in the comments would be much appreciated.

Oh, right - I guess there's one more little tidbit I should mention. Seeing as I am no longer a student, I won't have as many school posts to make. Sure, I'll still have a few, I will be teaching at my lovely Alma Mater - I am bringing back the Geek class (Anthropology 302) - and I will be submitting a few things for publication and job hunting and all that fun stuff, but I have decided, just now, to fill in the missing "student" posts with general geekery reflective of myself and my work.