A Masterrific Weekend

Great Success! I passed my oral exam. And I turned in my revised thesis to the library. I have completed my Master's Degree. It was a phenomenal weekend with the gang, hitting the bars of Broad Ripple, tasting the wonderful cajun/creole splendor of Yats, celebrating the timeless festival of Purim, watching the most awesomely terrible movie The Room, and perusing my old notebooks. I had been preparing for weeks, even rereading the beginning of The Rest is Noise, but I was always confident. Well, almost always. Luckily my professors are great guys, so they asked me some tough but good questions relating to my 2 years of studies at Butler. I wasn't perfect, but I proved that I knew my stuff. I got over the nerves pretty quickly, and by the end of it we were all smiling and laughing. To celebrate, we went out for buffet Indian food. Doesn't get much better than that. I printed my officially completed thesis on some special paper, turned it into the library, and am now done. It was a bittersweet ending, as expected. I love that Butler gang, and even though Chicago is a far superior city, I still miss being there sometimes. Those two years were unforgettable. Granted, I will probably go back and visit again, and they will come up here and visit me, but it was still a surreal feeling.
Here are some pictures of our third and final Purim Party (I apologize for the low quality, these moments were too good to ruin with a flash):
Dace opening the ceremony with a song.
Max and Scott were chosen to be the cantors for the evening, and did a great job of improvising some modern prayers.
And Max tells us how Mordecai and Esther defeated Hamen on the Lower East Side.
I finished the Power and the Glory, and have just started the Human Stain. I have a nice long to-read list, but please keep the recommendations coming!