Last Thursday morning was nerve wracking because I had to (successfully!) defend my thesis. It was fine, really, helped largely by the fact that I adore each of my committee members, which is, of course, why I chose them. It was not helped by the fact that I got absolutely no sleep the night before because I could not figure out a better way to write up half the 'results' of my research, something I'd been trying to do all week. I gave up and went to bed at 1:30, so of course that's when inspiration finally struck and 5 minutes later I was up and rewriting. In sympathy, David didn't sleep at all well and woke up at 6 having just had a nightmare in which I tripped going down stairs and badly injured myself. I think he's more relieved the thesis is over than I am.

The picture to the left is an example of how much the thesis has taken over our lives. Instead of the normal things we're supposed to use it for, like eating, it's overcome with paperwork. It's been like this for about three months now. I wish I could say it will be cleared very soon, but we're now in the process of packing up our stuff for the year we'll be gone (more on that later, I promise!), so that's not actually going to happen. It's currently littered with thesis detritus, as well as packing tape, books that haven't made it into a box, a set of electrical converters/adapters and other miscellaneous items awaiting a new home. Some day it will be a kitchen table, again, but probably not until Irene rescues it in a month, when we leave most of our stuff with her for the year that we'll be gone.

Posted by Leah | Permalink