the_matt79

Play that on repeat as you go through my travel blog.


okay so if you click that a little bigger you can see the path I traced over it crudely. Really a pretty drive for the most part, but doing it twice in two days sucks quite a bit actually.

So Wednesday the 4th of May I made my way to Missoula. Packed clothes for the day, my laptop, a copy of my thesis, a notebook, a pen, and said my goodbyes. Stopped by the credit union for some scratch and then headed to the gas station. (a ton of cash needed to drive back and forth across this state, well not a ton but at least 170 bucks) Reset the odomoter and off I went.

Little nervous, but also anxious to get it over with. The roads were good, but alas road construction season has started. It rained here and there which was nice, and I also almost over corrected when I was day dreaming looking for the state prison as it had just played a role in the Green Lantern storyline of the past few months, so that woke my back up.

So after driving 560 miles, and being on the road for 7+ hours I arrived in Missoula, and as I made the turn into the valley and saw the campus I felt funny, antsy maybe, but it was also beautiful, and something I hadn't seen in years of being away and doing all the work over the internet. Found my exit and headed to my hotel. Got a nice warm chocolate chip cookie at check in. lol

I decided to pay extra for the room that overlooked the river, as I wanted a nice calming and relaxing view, when I got up to the room I found that I also was over the patio for the restaurant and there were four drunken women out there cackling loudly, this worried me. But I walked over to Burger King for some quick eats and when I got back they only stuck around for a few minutes, then things were calm and I could get down to it...by that I mean a few pictures.









In that last one you can see the table the cacklers were at, and see how I was a little afraid of how my evening was going to go, but it went really well.

I settled in with the laptop playing the last part of the Braves doubleheader, and ate my food. Then I got down to business, notebook out, going over how I wanted to briefly present my project to my committee. At this point I realized how smart it was to pay the extra for the river view, as soon as I felt something building up inside me I would just watch the water for a while and listen to it and I was put at ease.

I went over things a few times and seemed like I had a good handle on it so I ironed my shirt, and then settled in to bed with the thesis after a bit I knew I couldn't do much more so I should go to sleep for a few hours before I woke up to go over it some more. I slept like crap, good comfy bed, plenty of pillows to always have a cool side to exploit, but I guess there was just a lot on my mind. I woke up vertical with my head at both sides of the bed a couple times, angled across it at least once, but I got some sleep and woke up at 5:30 so that I could shower and get ready and study up some more as my defense was set for 8:00.

Got to where I felt good about everything, and packed up my crap, checked out, and walked to campus with about 40 minutes to kill. As I walked across the bridge to campus I saw a table set up with four people and as I neared it I was asked if I wanted breakfast for walking. I had forgotten that they did that periodically throughout the semester to encourage alternate travel and eco friendly means. So of course I took them up on it, half a cranberry bagel and a cup of coffee just for walking my happy ass to campus, yes please. Besides the hotel was going to charge for their breakfast, and there wasn't much to it so I had planned on just waiting until after my defense.

It was nice to be back on campus, brought back memories, and got me moving in the right direction mind-wise. So I made my way over to the Social Sciences building to find the room that held my collegiate future in it. I was pleasantly surprised to find that Anthropology now controls the whole second floor of the building since geology had moved out, so that was pretty cool. Found room 252 and sat on the chair in the hall to go over my shit a few times more while I waited.

Dr. Kelly Dixon was the first to show up, and it was great to see her again, she is a professor that was hired a year after I started there, and the enthusiasm she has for Anthro is simply amazing and so infectious. A short time later Dr. Gregory Campbell walked up, he is my thesis chair, and a good guy, fun to talk to. Finally Dr. Richmond Clow arrived, a professor I had taken a class from on research techniques, really an invaluable source of info when it comes to things of that nature. We entered the room and chit chatted a bit before we took our places.

Campbell started by saying that this wouldn't be run like a doctoral defense the day before where the student basically went through his whole dissertation and after an hour was only on chapter four, he explained that he had asked me to just do a 8 minute breakdown and then we would head into the question phase of it all. Then he thanked Dixon and Clow for coming in so early and being part of the committee, especially Clow who saved my ass when my original third member went MIA and wouldn't get in contact with us the semester before. Then he thanked me for sticking it out over the years, saying that he respects persistence, and I was probably the most persistent student he had ever had. This all helped put me at ease and we went into the process of it all.

Honestly I don't know why I was nervous when it got down to it, because it was fun, really truly fun. I did my spiel on the paper, and then we went into questions, it was kind of a get asked, answer, then bullshit scenario, and it was fun to be back into that, back into a situation where I could use my brain. The one question that really threw me was from Clow when he asked, now that you're done with it, what would you do differently for research if you were given this question to answer. It was hard to answer at first because I really didn't know how I would go over it all differently, but no wrong answer to it at least.

When the questions were done they kicked me out in the hall and discussed my fate. A fellow grad student I had met that morning who is defending this week sat and bullshitted with me and I could see the nerves in his eyes, but they eased when I said I had fun with it all. Talked to him until Campbell came back for me. Walked back into the room and as we neared the table he turned and told me congratulations and shook my hand. I got notes from Clow and Dixon and Campbell sent me some articles to read for revision sake, and about three pages he wanted me to add, but the paperwork is signed and I am a Master of the Art of Anthropology.

We bulled some more before I left, and Campbell even said that if I wanted to turn it into an article that my other committee members would be invaluable for that, so that is something the future could hold for me. He apologized for it being anticlimatic, but I assured him that I had fun, and I left the Social Science building. Texted mom since she was in a meeting, called Dad (could hear the pride in his voice) and then called my sister, and left a voicemail. My sis texted me back since she was working, and then mom did as well and almost made me tear up a bit. The smile wouldn't leave my face, so I wandered around taking pics on campus for a bit.









Then I made my way back to the hotel to get my car and do some shopping...this is about when the congratulatory tweets and texts started coming in, so I would stop and take some pics and then also respond to those. Here are those results.





So after shopping for a while my trip back began, but the car had a pile of new books, a stack of comics and supplies, and a cooler of Kettle House Double Haul IPA my favorite microbrew beer in Missoula. The drive is so damn long even with a smile on your face, and you find out that the smile doesn't keep your ass from hurting. But I did it, that's done, doors can now be opened, the future is bright, things of that nature.

Matthew Gregory Sadorf, M.A. pleased to meet you.