Call me doctor?

On the 12th I successfully defended my dissertation, bringing me one step closer to moving to Cape Town.  In doing so, I guess I earned a new title (Dr.) and have a few more letters (PhD) to add to my name.  This day will be memorable for other reasons.  After a long morning, I then decided to volunteer for the Together We Thrive event held at The University of Arizona.  After waiting for hours, I ended up being tasked with providing information to people waiting in line to see President Obama speak at McKale (the university's basketball stadium).  Mostly, I told people what they can and cannot bring into the stadium. The line I worked on, there were two of them, was very long and probably stretched over a kilometer.  
             The interaction with so many people was both challenging and uplifting.  Most people were very nice and thankful that people volunteered and were helping out, while others wanted to argue.  The uplifting part was nice, given the sadness and disgust I felt over the previous few days.  These feelings caused by the tragedy which took place in Tucson last Saturday which will be difficult to forget.  The biggest problem I encountered was probably caused by the media saying small purses were OK to bring.  I've come to the conclusion that my idea of what a small purse might be is very different than what most women think the phrase small means when it comes to purses.  Luckily, someone over the radio gave me an objective measure of what small meant and this angered many people.  The objective measure was a compact digital camera bag.  Having to tell women who have been standing in line for a few hours that their small duffel bags they were carrying would probably prevent them from entering the stadium was not fun.  I had one old lady even curse at me while quoting the news.  I think the phrase was "I don't think you know what the f*&k you are talking about, the news said small purses were OK". How do you respond to that?
     After a long day working the lines and talking to people, I didn't even get to enter McKale.  I ended up watching the event, along with the thousands who didn't fit and instead watched from the stands of the football stadium on the Jumbo Tron. It was quite an impressive show of unity for our town.  I heard someone say that McKale seats 15,000 people.  Add that to over half of the football stadium (not counting the upper deck)  filling up, I would estimate at least twenty to thirty thousand people came to the event.   I really liked the president's speech and agree with others that it might have been one of his best yet.

I think this was a good way to spend my day.