Doctoral Candidate!

Well, it's official, I passed the oral portion of my preliminary (or comprehensive) exams on Thursday, September 27th!

Here's how the defense went:
2:40pm: Arrived in Aderhold (the college of education)
2:45: listened to music
2:50: tried to take deep breaths
2:55: bathroom break
3pm: defense was about to begin
3:02: went to grab one of my committee members
3:05: all members arrived and discussed for a minute or two before they asked me to come in the room
3:06: my dissertation committee plus all the program faculty began going through my responses day by day and asking any questions they had
3:32: I finished answering all the questions and my advisor asked me to step out into the hallway
3:33: I pace (they talk)
3:35: Dr. Cooper (my advisor) steps out of the room and CONGRATULATES me as a doctoral candidate!
3:36: Celebration ensues!

So now, I'm a doctoral candidate and unofficially (ABD: all but dissertation).  Now give me a D-O-C-T

Now, working on the O-R :)