Finishing Things

This was something of a a big weekend for me.  I turned in the last assignment of the last class in my master's program.

Not everyone knows this (well, actually, most of the people following this know it, although the internet at large does not), but for the past two years, I've been working toward my MLIS degree (Master's of Library and Information Science) with a concentration in Archival Studies.  I used to be an attorney in a former life - I devoted about ten years to the study and practice of law before realizing (admitting?) that the work and culture were entirely at odds with my nature.  So in the fall of 2009, I enrolled in the online MLIS program at the University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee.  Without ever having to leave the East Coast, I've been taking classes and doing internships in libraries and archives and hoping that the job market would be looking up by the time I graduated (ha!  Look how well that turned out!)

I have to say that although I loved the program, finishing my last class was a little anticlimactic.  It might be because I'm not really finished yet - I still need to get my final grades, I won't receive my degree until the end of August, and there's no summer commencement ceremony, so there won't really be any pomp and circumstance surrounding my graduation unless I choose to walk with the winter graduating class next December.  But I also have to say that while I'm not leaping at the chance to celebrate quite yet, I do feel the faintest glow of happiness and pride.  When I started the program, it seemed like forever until I'd be finished, but looking back, the whole thing seems like kind of a blur.  It's been a great ride!

The other thing that I finished this weekend was my Santana scarf for the Glee Cast Knits project.  I gotta say that right now, this feels like a bigger accomplishment than finishing my master's, since I had to knit like mad in order to meet Saturday's deadline.  Here's a picture of the final package that I sent out:

To my own credit, I think the scarf looks great - I'll be using the second half of the skein to make a matching one for myself.  And I'm really kind of proud of the fancy pants gift bag I found.  The card over on the left is the note card on which I wrote a gushy letter to Naya about how fabulous she is and how much I love her wardrobe and what a great role model she is for girls and women everywhere (all so true.)  It was a great feeling to send it all out, and I hope that it'll get to Naya at some point and that she'll enjoy it (and not just think that we're all a bunch of crazy knitting cat ladies.)

So... let's raise a glass to finishing things!  It feels good to get some things off my plate.  Next up:  job hunting, NaNoWriMo Camp, a second Phat Fiber contribution, knitting for ME, and trying to get my jewelry out on consignment.  Onward!!!