A blogpost! gasp! Lots has been happening offline in the past few months of desserts for breakfast silence: the biggest news being that I defended my dissertation! (successfully!) Whew. Now, it's just a month or so of revisions, and then I will officially file to become a Doctor. :D
Alongside dissertation insanity, I also had two conference trips out to the East Coast within the same three week time span: basically it's been fly to Connecticut, give a talk, fly home, defend my dissertation, fly to Boston, give another talk, fly home, and then within a day's breather, move to LA for another month of research here. Some days I wake up, and for a long minute, I'm confused about where I am. But, to be honest, I kind of thrive on the insanity. I've lately grown to be a big believer in making one's own luck, so being busy making mine is a good thing. Rest can come after the luck is made. As we sometimes joke in academia: "That's what tenure is for." :)
In the meantime, though, I do miss home a bit. The people, mostly, but also the place. And, of course, the food. Like Delfina's. Seriously one of the best slices of pie on the face of this earth. The one pictured above is a fresh cherry tomato pie ("cherry pie" ;)) that my friend Toni introduced me to. It's like having fresh, almost creamy tomato gazpacho atop a perfectly chewy crust. It's pure magic how they get it to be so soupy and not soggy at the same time! Oh, and I'm obsessed with the tricolore salad at Delfina's, too.
Anyways, now that the dissertation finish line is almost in sight, I've finally allowed myself to pick up the camera again. And, as if the universe were rewarding me for doing good on the dissertation front, I've gotten the chance to do some awesome shoots in the past few weeks since my defense. Watch this space for more substantive posts, soon!