This was such a fun and thoughtful gift from the very start!

It was wrapped in comics from an old childhood favorite of mine, Calvin and Hobbes. One large frame was blown up and displayed prominently on the bottom of the box. It eloquently summarized the gist of my existence - "Here I am. Waiting for the bus. Eleven more years of school to go. Then college, then maybe graduate school, and then I work until I die."

Yep, that about sums it all up.

I opened the box and found a SUPER AWESOME lightsaber, accompanied by a blown up XKCD comic (another favorite of mine, how did they know?!) describing that 'the best thesis defense is a good thesis offense.' Now I've been imagining starting my presentation only to include dramatic lightsaber poses and over-use the Inception button webpage...

The box of joy also included a lovely card and a copy of A Very Postmodern Christmas by Scott Bradlee and the Postmodern Jukebox.

Thanks so much, friend! Your Secret Santa gift really made my day and helped to cheer me up and encourage me to finish strong with this nasty business called a biochemistry Ph.D. =)

Happy holidays, Flashbang10