Revolving self-portrait

So, I just discovered this amazing gif after falling into a wikihole. It went: heaven--> Gustave Doré's illustration of Dante--> Gustave Doré (who was a looker, in an 1850s sort of way)--> Gaspard-Félix Tournachon.

How wonderful and creepy.

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Nadar_autoportrait_tournant.gif

It's a gif made out of this self-portrait series. Oh, humans, how I love you sometimes.

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Autoportrait_tournant_Nadar_c.1865.jpg

May in New Orleans

Magdalena and I went to New Orleans last week to be with my mom while we found out some test results. They ultimately proved inconclusive, though definitely more on the positive side of things. 

We also got to attend my niece, Ida's fifth birthday celebration. Ida was born just 3 weeks before Rosalía. That Ida melts my heart. This picture captures her spirit. Now I know what older people mean when they say a child has an old soul. That's what Ida seems like to me.

Turquoise ice cream and chocolate chip cookies.

Ben and friends play Ida some birthday tunes.

"How old are you, Ida?"

And, as usual, my trip was made possible and fueled by lots of PJs iced coffee.

JWS, PhD

I had planned on posting some pictures of me when I started the graduate program, nine, yes nine, years ago. But then I thought it might bum me out because I was so much skinnier. Granted, that first year of grad school was so intensely stressful that I was drinking Ensure because I couldn't bring myself to eat. And my friend Nikki finally confessed to me the other day that I was a little megacephalic at that weight, which made me very happy indeed--not that I was megacephalic, but that I've since rectified the situation.

Anyhow, after much worry that I would not graduate this semester over a piece of paper and last minute scrambling to fed-ex a piece of paper from France to Massachusetts to Austin (a classic Jess move), I was able to turn in all of the necessary paper to graduate. I left the office and had some fellows who'd just turned in their philosophy dissertations take this photo of me doing the longhorns symbol. For some reason I was making it gang-ish?

Longhorns represent.

We went out for steak dinner that night, and Agapito gave me silver longhorn earrings, pictured below. They are the only school-affiliated insignia I've ever sported. Very UT, very Texas. I would say that I've generally eschewed that kind of stuff because I see it as a lesser form of nationalism--doesn't that make me sound thoughtful and deep?-- but the truth is that I've just never cared to come off as the sporty type.  I sort of loathe college football. I even tried attending a game once. I haaated it. Anyway, I love my earrings, and I love that Magdalena is such a merciless carnivore.

We also went camping the week prior. It was the first time ever. It confirmed for me that I'm still not a nature person. I need human artifacts, whether ancient or contemporary, to really avoid feeling empty.  I don't know why nature has always made me feel an overwhelming sense of ennui, but it just does. As Agapito put it, I like attractive landscapes as a backdrop for other activities. Oh, but I do love hiking. Or at least, I love having hiked.

I get by with a little help from my friends...

This week is NUTS, I tell you...NUUUTS! Friday I have to turn everything in to the graduate school so I can finally be a not-that-kind-of-doctor doctor. And naturally, because I am who I am, there's an essential document that "went missing," resulting in a last minute Fed-Exing from France, to Massachusetts, to Texas, in 5 days. Awesome!

And naturally there's a bajillion other things going on: appointments, registrations, traveling, illness, familial drama, etc.

Fortunately, I've got help from this little stinkeroo--

"Oh mother, that's not how you spell 'necessary'!"

"Okay, we're done here! Now go get a job!"

Onward!