Trust Me, I’m a Doctor

PHD: Pizza Hut Delivery in Lima, Peru. Note the image of a delivery boy on fire on the left…

uick interruption in my dissertation-by-blog series to say: I’m a doctor! No, not the kind of doctor that can write a prescription and stick things into your orifices (although I suppose that depends on the context), but a PhD. I defended my dissertation on Tuesday morning, July 19th, 2011. It went well, tons of people showed up, and I wore this lovely new suit that I got tailored during my trip to Peru earlier this month; charcoal with violet pinstripes!

Afterwards, I went for a indulgent lunch with my BFF and fellow-suffering classmate. From there, I went home, stripped off my suit (keep in mind that we’re in a heat wave in Chicago, and the temperature has been a solid 35ºC  (95ºF) ever since I returned from Lima), and then went to Hollywood beach to throw myself in the lake. Oddly enough, there was this strange mist covering all the areas near Lake Michigan, which was so thick in some places that you couldn’t see more than a few feet ahead of you. Some people said that it was a fog of ozone, but apparently the fog was created when a mass of cold air slid down the coast of the lake from the north, and then there wasn’t enough wind (in Chicago!) to mix the air mass with the warmer air in the city. In any case, it made for an interesting setting for hanging out on the beach. On the one hand, the air was noticeably cooler in the fog; on the other hand, all the gay dudes on the beach couldn’t engage in the game of Stand and Pose that seems to be so important for queer beach-going culture.

Dense fog over Hollywood Beach, July 19th, 2011. That's the sun back there.

Sunset through the fog over Hollywood beach, July 19th, 2011.

After that, I went out to Big Chicks and met a big group of my friends for celebratory drinking. Thankfully, there are no photographs of what ensued, but I can assure you that it was a night to hazily remember/regret. My chapter on smooth/rough experience (coming up later in the series) became very real that night…