ABC Meme

Everyone else is doing it...

Accent: I'm from the Midwest where television journalists are born.
Booze: Of course! Dirty martini or a good red wine
Chore I Hate: Changing the kitty litter-yuck!
Dog or Cat: Cat
Essential Electronics: Laptop, iPod, PS2
Favorite Cologne: Poison
Gold or Silver: Platinum.
Hometown: Small town, USA
Insomnia: Only when stressed.
Job Title: very soon it will be Assistant Professor!
Kids: No thanks.
Living arrangements: 2br/2bath rental--looking to make my first home purchase
Most admirable trait: I've got some memorable traits but I'm not sure they are really admirable.
Number of sexual partners: A single digit
Overnight hospital stays: Never
Phobia: Hights make me a bit nervous, but I'm not afraid to look down.
Quote: On ne voit bien qu'avec le coeur. L'essential est invisible pour les yeux. -St. Exupery
Religion: Church of sleeping in on Sunday.
Siblings: 1 sister
Time I wake up: Wake up? 6:30 or 7. Actually get out of bed? 8 or 9.
Unusual talent or skill: Hmmmm...I can roll my tongue and also turn it over.
Vegetable I refuse to eat: Green peppers
Worst habit: Procrastination.
X-rays: Just teeth
Yummy foods I make: Desserts (cakes and cookies)
Zodiac sign: Sagitarrius

It is official. . .

One martini, two martini, three martini ..... floor.

The Dr. has left the building and gone to happy hour.

I.am.a.Ph.D. Goal attained.

ABD for a few more hours...

T minus 4 hours 42 minutes until defense.

I'm not nervous. I'm done.

Next post will be from Statgirl, Ph.D.

Graduation Stress

Not that student stress was driving me bonkers anyway....can you believe the place I am having my graduation party at double booked and I am getting the shaft!!!!

It has taken me almost a full 24 hours to calm down enough to come to a compromise with the manager and I'm still cranky!!!

Trying to remind myself that the important thing about the party is that all my friends and family are there---location details are not the important thing, location details are not the important thing.....

Student Stress

Here are my student stressor highlights of the week (so far):

• Email from Stu Dent on Monday

Statgirl--

I am attaching my rough draft and although I am still working on the paper and making changes I would like some feedback. I did notice that the rough draft was due yesterday but I'm looking forward to your comments to help me now.

Stu Dent

Most interesting thing about this email is that this student is so @#$$% clueless that he/she can't even read the syllabus and notice that the rough draft was due over a week ago.

My response: none

• Email from Tuesday

Dear Dr. Statgirl-

I am very much interested in enrolling in your XXXX class this summer. I have a few questions: 1) When does the class start? 2) When and where does the class meet? 3) When does the class end? 4) Can I do part of this class independently?

I should tell you that I will not be able to attend class at all until the end of June due to work conflicts.

Looking forward to your XXX class,

Dr. Future Stu Dent

Is this Stu Dent for real? " I'm completely clueless, apparently already have a PhD and can't use the internet AND , by the way, I would like to enroll in a class in which I will miss at least half of the class sessions"

My response:

Stu Dent,

All course information is on the university website. If you cannot attend class until the end of June , you should not enroll in a summer school course.

--Statgirl

• After exam in class today:

I get back to my office and notice that there is an error on my exam. I asked a question which was impossible to answer from the materials provided. NO ONE asked about this question during the exam...... oh geez, this is not a good sign about their comprehension of the material.

And I really want to be a professor and I'm so excited about my new tenure-track job. (Repeat 3 times.)

Acid Free Paper and Taxes

On my way to the post office today to mail my taxes (yes, I am a procrastinator --that is the first step of my 12 step program), I stopped at the bookstore to get acid free paper. I got the last box but it only has 250 sheets. I need to print 2 copies of my 200 page dissertation. I asked them when the next order would be in. However, the bookstore powers don't see the need to reorder anytime soon--"after all, it is the end of the semester".
When do they think we theses/dissertation writers will print our archival copies that are due on the last Friday in May???
I finally ended up at the 'help desk' defending my need for more acid free paper before July. Possibly convinced them to order, but I was not hopeful. However, as I was checking out....a guy walked in, saw my purchase and asked me where the paper was located---I sent him to the help desk to tell them that they need to reorder!

Easter Slug

The Easter Slug paid me a visit today. I am completely unable to get off of my couch; it was a major effort to move from my bed to the couch--however, the lure of multiple cable channels finally pulled me free of the pillows.

5:30 pm seems like a reasonable time to take a shower and get out of my PJ's finally, doesn't it?

On checking email...

Why do I check my work email account before I go to bed?

I am pretty certain that I did not see that email from a student sending a rough draft 3 days late. It is very clear on the syllabus that it was due on Tuesday and that should the student not have the draft to me by Tuesday, then the final copy would be the only copy I would read. I think email makes submitting things late way too simple--would the student have bothered to make a trek to campus to submit the draft to my mailbox in hopes that I would forget about the passed deadline? I think not.

Sleeping and Dreaming

So now that I am not so focused on cranking out written pages, I have returned to regular sleeping and dreaming patterns. I am very happy that I was able to sleep in until 9 am today. However, the dreams have been a bit "over the edge"--random people in odd places showing up saying obsure things. I'm really hoping that that bizarro land dreams stop soon.

Random Bullets of Crap: Life Update Edition

Since my blogging has been severely limited in recent weeks due to placing every last word I could squeeze out of my tiny little brain onto paper in required chapters, articles, presentations, etc.; it is now time for a real blogging routine to resume.

However, in order to undertake this task, a 'bullets of random crap post' is in order to get things rolling again. . .

• Dissertation is back from the format check---only 4 tiny things to fix in the reference section. Yea! It was well worth paying someone to deal with all that triple space, double indent crap.
• Hotel rooms are booked for visiting family for graduation weekend
• Defense presentation is in pretty good shape-practice run through soon to polish
• Article is back with the editor (anticipating small changes only next go around [fingers and toes crossed])
• Party list is made, appointment made with manager to detail food, beverage, money issues (will print invitations this weekend)
• Still waiting for graduation announcements to arrive--not high on my list, but sure makes the family happy to get one of those double enveloped things.
• Personal life is a 0 ...... whoa, wait! I now have time to have a personal life again--must let my friends know that I am alive.
• Plan to go to coffee/dinner/drink/something with boy from past --why do I do this to myself? I am over him....at least I always think so until I see him again. I'm thinking I should wait until after the defense to schedule this outing.
• On the homefront--serious cleaning is in order.
• Need to go to the grocery store--how is it possible that a girl that loves to eat as much as me can harbor such deep hatred for the grocery store trip.
• Still have a stack of my students' rough drafts to read....hhhmmm? Did I mention that I needed to clean?

Home Sweet Home

Back home from the conference. Weather here is a good 25 degrees warmer than conference city (which is unusual)--pulled out the flip flops today for my first day back in the office. Conference was good--I didn't fall down (yes, that has happened to me before) or say anything too stupid in my presentation. Met some of my new colleagues and fellow bloggers (message to blogger meet-up persons: had a great chat, thanks for taking time to have a drink with me!)

Speaking of the office--I'm back in it. My dissertation is done. My defense presentation is pretty much ready to go (just modified the job talk). I spent hours in airports and on the plane yesterday working on a manuscript that I think will make it out the door this week after another conference with other authors.

The only REAL task in front of me is grading my students' rough drafts (ugh). How will I function without 9 things that are all due yesterday??

Time to get into full graduation party planning and house hunting mode. What a nice change from recent weeks.

Dissertation Dump: Part II

Today I delivered the Big D to my committee members. It only took about 2 hours last night to print the beast. All this extra hoopla with sending pages through the printer twice in order to get the tables with horizontal orientation on the page correctly. Then, of course, I made a mistake in the title (geez, of all places!) and had to reprint the 5 title pages this morning before I made deliveries.

It hasn't quite hit me yet. I'm done. I wrote a dissertation and I will be a Ph.D. in a few short weeks. It could be the fact that in the midst of this dissertation culmination I also got the last round of revisions on a book chapter out and a revise and resubmit finished on a journal article. Could it actually be that I am on my way to becoming a professor? Might I actually be getting the hang of this gig??

Stay tuned......I need to go pack my bags. I have an early flight out tomorrow morning for a conference.