October 19, 2007

Okay, so I'm pretty much done with my dissertation now. I gave a copy to each of my committee members, got their signatures on a special pink "Request for Oral Examination" form (no small feat in itself), and turned it (the form) in to the Graduate School yesterday. I sat in the degree evaluator's office and got the official green light to have my defense on Nov. 2. Now, I wait. While a huge weight is definitely in the process of being lifted, for some reason I have developed an eye-twitch in the last 24 hours which is usually a sign of stress for me.

It's an unfamiliar feeling being done with the writing. The other day I was walking along thinking, 'don't all these people realize that I'm done? Can't they tell?' Life has indeed continued all around me oblivious to my little accomplishment. Sigh!

October 10, 2007

I could be wrapping up my dissertation right now, but I keep getting distracted by trying to line up work for January and the next few months. I only have a few revisions to make and cosmetic items like the table of contents, but I've put it off for two days so far. I'm basically sitting in front of the TV doing income projections on my calculator. Must focus!

October 2, 2007

OMG! I just turned in the full draft to my advisor. I basically ended up completely re-writing the first thirty pages, which took for-freaking-ever. I have been sitting at my desk non-stop for the past five days. So now, I wait for feedback, make more revisions, write acknowledgments (oscar speech!), etc., and move into the final phase of operation PhD.

Through this process, I have discovered, among other things, that Pepe thinks my halogen desk lamp is his own personal tanning bed. Right exactly where I need to put my notes and papers in order to get work done. Pepe!!! (shaking fist).

In other news, I stayed up until 2am last night reading The Lost: A Search for Six of Six Million. I'm halfway through it -- holy crap it's really interesting and compelling and horrible.