The long-awaited and much-dreaded day has finally come and gone. Hal defended his thesis yesterday. He will probably be writing about it in his weblog. I’m writing this in case anyone thinks he exhibits false pride in his account…

This is something we have both been nervous about for quite some time. Our anxiety has been ramping up over the past month. On Tuesday night, he ran through the talk for me. It was full of lots of umms and pauses. A lot of it didn’t really seem to flow to me and there was a lot I didn’t understand, but I just thought that was because I’m not an archaeologist (I’ve got a B.A. in Anthropology but I specialized in Physical Anthropology. I know primate anatomy, not tools and other human garbage). He also gave practice talks for Greg, the LVSP archaeologist, on Wednesday and Thursday.

Sometime around Wednesday night, Hal started to get much calmer. Meanwhile, I got more nervous. That night, I had several anxiety dreams involving different ways the defense would go horribly wrong. He would completely freeze up, he would get lots of horrible confrontational questions afterward, etc. I’ve always believed him capable of doing an outstanding job. I was just worried he wouldn’t believe that about himself and that he would fail via a self-fulfilling prophecy.

The talk was scheduled to begin at 2:00 p.m. yesterday. I work just across Flamingo Road from the campus, but I was almost late due to some last minute emergencies I had to attend to at work. I was lucky to find a metered parking space close to Wright Hall (Yes, I probably could have walked over much quicker, but being pregnant, I find I can’t take the Las Vegas summer heat).

Anyway, I got there about 1:55. I met our friends Claudia and Gene in the hall and went in and sat with them. Claudia is a fellow grad student and former office-mate of Hal’s. Gene just graduated with his B.A. in Anthro from UNLV. He’ll be starting the graduate program at UNR with Ted Goebel, Hal’s advisor. Lots of Hal’s friend’s and professional acquaintances were there, including Sir Death.

Hal was wearing his field boots, field jeans, a white cotton shirt I’d pressed the night before (probably the first ironing I’ve done in ten years), and a red stripped tie with little skulls of Homo habilis, Homo erectus, and Zinjanthropus boiseii (I told you I knew all that bone stuff. That B.A. in Anthro wasn’t a waste of time. It wasn’t, it wasn’t, it wasn’t!!).

Hal’s committee members sat around a table at the front of the room. Hal’s advisor, Ted, was wearing jeans and a brand new UNLV T-shirt. He just came in from his field school in Northeast Nevada and apparently all his shirts had some kind of stain on them, so he ran over to the student union and bought his first UNLV shirt. Somewhat ironic since he will be starting his job at UNR this fall. Dave Weide, Professor of Geology and Hal’s outside committee member, wore shorts and a T-shirt. The other two committee members, Alan Simmons and Jennifer Thompson, were dressed like accountants. They’re obviously not real scientists.

At 2:01, Ted introduced the committee and Hal. The lights were dimmed and the talk began.

I can’t really communicate how well he did. Things that seemed a little muddled and unclear during the practice talk became tight and cogent. His timing was perfect, introducing supporting information at exactly the right time. Although the talk was very professional and serious, he had just the right amount of humor and self effacing comments. He was just so confident and authoritative, I pictured him being interviewed for a segment of a NOVA episode on Archaeology of the Great Basin or lecturing before an auditorium of undergrads. It was the best talk I’ve seen him give and I’ve seen him give some pretty good talks. I knew he was smart, but the whole time I kept thinking “Wow, he really knows this stuff.”

When the talk was over, we all applauded and Hal took questions. None of the questions was confrontation or condescending. Some of them were difficult though. He handled them all with great aplomb. When the questions were over, Ted asked us all to give Hal another round of applause. Then he asked everyone to leave. As people were filing out of the room, I walked toward Hal. “That means you, too, Audrey.”, Dr. Simmons said while smiling. I gave Hal a kiss on the cheek, told him he did a good job, and left.

Out in the hall, everyone had broken up into groups. Claudia, Gene, Sir Death, and I were discussing what to do afterward. It also happened to be Claudia’s birthday and I wanted to do something she’d like, too. We finally decided to meet at The Crown and Anchor, a British-themed pub near campus.

Since we didn’t know how late we’d be out, I had to run home to feed the dog and cat and let the dog out to relieve himself (he’s too old to endure the Las Vegas summer heat outside). Greg waited for Hal while he was being grilled by the committee. Lots of people met at the C and A around 5 – 5:30. By the time I got there, the long table was full and there were no seats near Hal, so I sat at the other end near Sir Death.

All night, people kept coming up to me telling me what a good job Hal did and how proud they were of him. Greg, who’d heard the practice versions of Hal’s talk on Wednesday and Thursday said he thought the those talks were good, but that the actual defense was outstanding. He was really impressed with how brave Hal was not to read his speech off of a piece of paper.

Accolades kept coming in all night! Ted and Alan told Hal how excellent the talk was. Finally, my husband is getting the praise he deserves! It was wonderful. He really deserves to bask in the glow of this achievement.

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“He has no improper pride…He is truly the best man I have ever known.”
-Jane Austen
Probably an imperfect quote of Elizabeth speaking of Mr. Darcy in Pride and Prejudice.