Silly Ph.D. Comic
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Internship Update
Despite my impending defense, the internship show marches on. Today, I began my third rotation. I am working in a place that focuses on serving families and individuals dealing with issues of domestic violence. I’m hitting the ground running with this one. Today, I was handed 5 new counseling cases, 2 assessment cases, plus people to supervise, and tons of new responsibilities. It was truly overwhelming, and I feel exhausted, yet I still have work to do tonight. The changeover is tricky because my schedule in the schools hasn’t really died down yet and won’t until school ends in a few weeks, I’m still carrying 3 clients from my last rotation, and I have all of these new clients. It’s more of the same juggling act. I’m getting better at it though. I think that once my defense is over, it will be a great place to work. Luckily, I won’t start running groups until after my defense. That was just luck, and I’m so happy about that. The best news of all is that I work about 2 minutes from where I live. After a year of driving constantly, it’s amazing to work 2 minutes away and to stay in the same building all day long. So refreshing!
Final Days
Hooray! My dissertation chair is not dead, and he’s read about halfway through the latest (I’m calling it the "final") draft. Unfortunately, his 40-something wife is pregnant with twins, and even though the official full-term date is mid-June, she has already been to the hospital 4 times. If she can last, they are planning on inducing pregnancy on May 17th, just 5 days after I defend. Oh, and my dissertation director is on sabbatical, and I haven’t spoken to him in a while either, but he’s given me feedback, and I’ve made all the changes he suggested. The other two committee members? Haven’t heard a peep out of either of them.
Best case scenario? They are all so out of it and feel so guilty about their lack of attention to my many attempts to contact them, that they don’t ask any challenging questions, and they just sign off on… easy peasy. Even better case scenario: My chair’s wife has two healthy twins at the exact time of my scheduled defense, meaning that he can’t show up and just signs off on it later in the day!
Worst case scenario? They all stay up late the night before reading like mad looking for things to critique. They all show up grouchy and ready to grill me. They see things they hadn’t noticed before that they hate. They berate me for my shoddy research and writing skills. I fail my Ph.D. and end up jobless and homeless, unloved and on the streets of Memphis, addicted to meth.
I Have Not Died
It’s just that my dissertation defense is in 15 days and 23 hours, and I have a lot of other stuff to do before then. I’m not sure I’ve been working on my dissertation. I’m not sure what I’ve been doing, but I haven’t been blogging, and I haven’t been Tribing. If I haven’t called you… if I haven’t written… then wait until May 16th to bother me about it 😛
For a correct up-to-the day countdown, please check out the "This and That" area of the sidebar. If you click on the picture, you can read all of my previous posts about my dissertation… You know, for the fun of it.
Dissertation Defense Looming
Man, the defense is in 31 days, 16 hours. I have an countdown extension on my Firefox browser. There’s a lot to do, but I’m just so uninterested. I feel like I need to be more nervous than I am. It’s like if I admit that I’m so close, I’ll have to deal with it, and honestly, I’m so sick of this project that I don’t even care anymore. But I’m sure as time approaches, I’ll care more. Today, I’m working on the reference section and the dissertation announcement. It’s dull. I’d rather be doing just about anything.
On the new Word Press platform, Aaron has the admin level 10, and I have a 9, because there can’t be two 10s, and he’s doing the really technical programming stuff. I’m always asking him to police me and make me work, so he said if he catches me blogging too much, he’ll shut down my blog until May 13th, the day after my defense!! Now that’s policing!
Hope y’all find me over here real soon. It seems awfully quiet so far. Also, check out the moblog. I’ve been trying to use it more. My new camera phone is FUN!
