Although I wasn’t nervous about teaching, I was still in somewhat of a tizzy when I woke up Thursday morning, worrying about whether or not the computer/projector in the assigned classroom would work, as my entire lesson relied upon the PowerPoint presentation—again, worrying about something totally out of my control, so I just left it in God’s hands and trusted He would take care of making sure everything worked. After all, I’d already been seeing His hand through so much of what had happened the previous 48 hours.

We left the hotel early so I would have time to set up my presentation. Thankfully, Chun Lee and Dr. Al were already there and the computer and projector were both up and running. Kim Metzgar came in shortly thereafter, so all three of us were set up with plenty of time to spare before class started at 9:00 a.m.

Even though I would have chosen quite a different combination of people for the class from just looking at the list—because I would have been more comfortable with having more people that I know well in there—my session went even better than I’d hoped with lots of participation from the class and lots of feedback and questions afterward. The evaluator (one of the profs from the department of Education) told me I need to “take this show on the road,” and gave me nothing but extremely positive feedback. Since I taught first, I was able to sit back and relax—and enjoy Kim’s and Chun’s sessions.

Either Wednesday or Thursday before lunch (I can’t really remember which day), Penny Dawn and I walked over to the bookstore to get our accoutrements for graduation—cap & gown, tassel, and HOOD.

After lunch, I went into a session entitled “Accuracy in Mystery & Suspense.” When I signed up for it, I thought it would be more about working with adding mystery or suspense accurately into your writing, but it turned out to be the “Guns and Knives” class—so while there was some good information, I didn’t get much out of it.

The instructor let us out early, so I ran out to the car and retrieved my two “precious babies”—the printed copies of my thesis—and took them to the library along with the required approval and permission forms to leave for binding.

When I’d printed them at home several weeks before, I’d noticed after starting the second copy that the first box of paper, although the exact same brand and type, wasn’t marked “acid free,” so only the last 2/3 of the second copy was printed on paper I knew for sure was acid free. I’d called the library afterward—after much online discussion amongst my fellow graduates about what they would accept and what they wouldn’t, but the person in the library could only tell me that they tested the paper when it was turned in.

So, praying the whole time that I wouldn’t have to go purchase more paper if mine didn’t “pass the test,” I handed my copies over and watched as he flipped over the “official” copy—the second one I’d printed—and tested it with a special archivists’ pen. It passed the test, and I walked out with Analisa a few minutes later feeling a sense of relief—and of a bit of loss . . . after all, having turned that in meant I was really good and truly finished. Except for a few classes and workshops to attend the next few days, my time at SHU was over.

Analisa and I went back to the hotel while Melissa stayed on campus for her 6:00 mentor meeting (Analisa’s mentor was out of the country). At the hotel, we just kicked back and relaxed—watching a rerun episode of Charmed, which had an actor in it who is a template for one of my major secondary characters in HEI (Forbes).

We swung by the Sheraton and picked up Penny Dawn before heading back to school to get Melissa for dinner. We stayed and chatted with Dr. Al and Dr. Mike Arnzen for about 15-20 minutes, reminding them how much they were going to miss Penny Dawn and me after we graduated. Then we four Chicks went to TGIFridays for dinner before heading over to the Hampton Inn for the traditional “Wine Social.”

When we go there at 9:00 p.m., almost everyone was out behind the building at the “sword demonstration,” so it was pretty quiet inside and we had a chance to catch up with a few alumni as well as get to know a few newbies as well. Others slowly trickled in until we finally had a swinging party going (enough so that one of the hotel staff had to come tell us to keep the noise down).

We said our goodbyes around 11 p.m., dropped Penny Dawn off at the Sheraton (laughing and giggling all the way), then went back to the gold ol’ Comfort Inn to crash for the night.