I spent several hours hunting down a photo of an event I wanted to talk about. It happened in graduate school. I have a picture of it somewhere that someone gave me, but after several moves, I can’t find it anywhere. I went through a box that I keep on my dresser because the last time I saw the photo, it was on my dresser. Seemed logical. It wasn’t there. Instead I found a stack of wallet-sized photos of me, my son and my sister. The box has old coins in it, but those didn’t interest me too much. I did find old jewelry from grade school though–a bracelet and two necklaces that I think were from Avon.

My next idea was to find the box where I keep the stuff from graduate school. Again, it seemed like a logical choice. I found all of my diplomas from college. Funny how I’ve never framed a single one. Yet, I’ve seen many people who do frame them and hang them. I never bothered to get the special MU frame that they sell that would be appropriate for displaying my doctorate. I never made a big deal out of it. While it may be considered quite an accomplishment, I never liked how it separated me from everyone else. Somehow in social situations when someone finds out you have a doctorate in chemistry they suddenly don’t know what to say to you. They feel inadequate–you can see it on their faces. Other things in the box were envelopes of stuff from places I’ve been in California when I first moved here and stuff saved from the time with an ex. The box also has my cap, invitations and program from graduation. My hood is there also, nicely wrapped in vacuum-sealed plastic. Now that I paid for. One never uses their hood unless you’re attending graduation say as a professor or honoree. But since I didn’t know what I might be doing later, I bought it. You can only get your hood at the time of graduation, and they tend to change over the years.

So after about an hour of hunting, I never did find the photo. When I was president of the graduate student chemistry association, we held a fundraiser to put a pie in the face of your professor. The money was to be used for scholarships to meetings. We recruited volunteers from undergraduate chemistry and one from the graduate school. I was there in the auditorium when the undergrad professor who taught freshman got his pie. Several of us were TA’s for his class. He wasn’t very popular with the undergrads, so it was no surprise that he earned the most votes in money. There was a drawing among the current students to decide who would get to put the pie in his face. The class had quite the attendance that day!

The grad school professor who “won” was the chair. We gathered around in the foyer one day to do his honors. Professors and grad students were there. Even some of his friends from other departments were there. Again, everyone got to draw to see who got to give him the pie. I opened up my little white paper to find the mark. Many professors told me I could make some good money by selling my paper. In the end, I did the honors to the graduate chair. Something he never forgot. There was even a bit of teasing of revenge on my defense day about giving me a pie. No pie for me that day, but I was a bit concerned. Oh, the dry cleaning!