Thursday, May 29, 2014

So this is it....


I admit I have not posted in forever. But in my defense, I have done so much.... so much grad school, that is. I have *finally* reached that miraculous place known as ABD (all but dissertation) that means so much to a grad student and absolutely nothing to anyone else.

But, but! Classes are done, exams are done, and my advisor has greenlit but proposal outline, so that's a big deal. And my husband is job-hunting, since his grad schooling is actually done, so that's a really big deal.

My head is full of the things I want to do in the coming weeks/months/years. I spoke to someone recently, who had asked about how my program was coming along, and he related to me that he had so many fond memories of the dissertation stage because your whole life is ahead of you and you have so many dreams as you near the end of grad school. At first, I was struck by the fact that generally I get sympathetic smiles or dissertation horror stories, so his warmth was a shock. However, the more I consider it, the more I think he may be right. This probably says a lot more about me than anything else, but I have always been a bit of a daydreamer, and as a result I do consider the best times in my life to be those full of hope and promise, before the dreams have fully come to fruition.

Few extracurricular projects have been completed, and very few have been photographed for posterity as of late. I did get out my sewing machine, lovingly sweep out the dust bunnies, and get all of her moving parts cleaned up. I even made a very small alteration on my bathing suit cover-up, so that's a step in the right direction. Said alteration was performed in preparation for a conference in the most beautiful conference location I have ever seen...


...Honolulu (okay, that photo is from the North Shore of Oahu). The first four days of my trip were spent in windowless rooms listening to (fascinating) academic talks, but we did stay a few extra days to see the sights. Perhaps more on that later. Until next time, I will be trying, trying, trying to focus on my dissertation draft so I can move on to bigger and better things! And making some time to indulge my domestic hobbies, too.