A Masters-Prepared Student

So I'm sure judging on the fact that I am in fact still alive you have surmised that yes, I did indeed pass my thesis defense on Tuesday.  Thanks to everyone for all the supportive comments (even to those I accidentally deleted because I was trying to publish them on my phone while my hands were shaking).  The whole day is a little bit of a blur, what with the major stress, freaking out, and not eating thing.  A few times my hands were shaking so bad I couldn't even knit, though I did make good progress on the foot of the second Time of My Life sock while waiting five million hours for my defense to start.

Luckily for the documentation of the day, I did tweet quite a bit, so I'm going to post a few excerpts here in hopes that I can reconstruct it all.

6:03am - It's today. Today is here. #defense
8:07am - Got a parking spot in the free lot! #goodthings #cometothosefivehoursearly
8:16am - Sitting outside Dittos waiting for it to open. There's a dude snoring on the couch in front of me.
8:21am - There's a crowd gathering.  We're all subtly vying for places in line.
8:30am - I'm in! This is a competitive time of year.

It all spirals from there, getting more panicky and less informative, culminating in hallucinating seeing Sandy Cohen and a sudden need for a gin and tonic, despite the fact I have never in my life had either gin or tonic.

After I survived the defense (which I really do not remember, so don't ask.  I know it went well, I know I stayed calm, and most importantly I know my skirt was not wrinkled), I packed my weary self back into my car and drove the 2+ hours back to my apartment.  Where I pretty much passed out on account of that aforementioned no eating that had lasted the past three days.  Yesterday I had the day off work and so of course my body woke up on time and would not go back to sleep.  So rather than laze around the apartment and enjoy having no defense to work on I sat at my computer, finished correcting the few typos found in the text, and then scurried all over town to find a place that prints on 100% cotton paper (just go to FedEx business. Don't even try to find another place because they won't be able to help and are not nice about it).  End result?  Yesterday afternoon I was able to send this in the mail.

The past two years in 94 pages.  It is done and I am left with nothing to do before graduation next week.  I may have to create a self-assigned reading list to survive the transition from student to real grown-up.  Thankfully I have work to keep me busy, just not busy enough.

One More Tic On the Checklist

I love Mondays.  I know I'm the exception to the norm, but my work schedule usually means that I am working most of my hours Thursday thru Sunday, making my weekends harried and exhausting.  I work at the tutoring center on Mondays, but Monday morning is like my gift to myself.  I let myself sleep in, I generally try to do some laundry, and I try to push myself to go a little farther or longer on my run.

Today I didn't actually get any laundry done, but I finished my Christmas shopping and then worked on the thesis some more.  The big moment of the day?  When I got home from work to an email letting me know that my formatting has been approved.  This is a huge relief because I have been stressed about getting that right since I started this process two and a half years ago.  Yeah, there's the original research, the writing, and I still have to properly defend the thing next week, but as of today the graduate school has given me the green light to  pursue graduation in three weeks. 

In celebration I am taking a break from the defense writing and curling up with my knitting, some tea, and the most recent of my library for Kindle acquisitions.  I might finish the body of Cria tonight.  Or I might just go to bed before midnight for once.

Emerging from the Knitting Pile

It's been a while since I've felt like blogging.  With the thesis coming due at the beginning of this month I just didn't have the energy to write outside of the hours I spent hammering out chapters.  You would not have wanted to read anything I had to say anyway, because it was all very self-absorbed whining about how much more I had to accomplish and how rediculous it was for me to decide to get this degree in the first place and how traffic in Raleigh was out to get me so that I was gone for over 10 hours a day when I should be home writing.

In any case, I'm done with the first draft now and am basking in the almost fall weather and the weird calm that has fallen on me since I turned it in last Friday.  But lest you worry I have not been knitting, never fear.  I have accomplished much in the panic-stricken moments between word sprints.

From top to bottom:
Spiral Tweed Cloche by Veronik Avery in Manos del Uraguay Wool Classica
Rustling Leaves Beret by Alana Dakos in CJ Kopek Creations Integrity
Autumn Vines Beret by Alana Dakos in Berroco Ultra Alpaca
Skinny Skid by Stephen West in Berroco Ultra Alpaca Fine and Dream in Color Starry
Cloudy Day Beret by Alana Dakos in Loop D Loop by Teva Durham Moss
Fledermaus-Tuch by Jana Albrecht in Classic Elite Yarns Alpaca Sock
Under the Cover of Midnight Hooded Cowl by Julie Turjoman in Cascade Eco +

Most of these haven't been entered into Ravelry yet (but should be soon!) because I did not have that kind of time.  To borrow a Knitmore Girl turn of phrase, I have not had the bandwith to do more than knit a few rows at a time.  Nor did  I have the mental capacity to do anything that would require a lot of thought, so I resorted to well-written patterns for smaller items.  The end result, as you can see, has been anxiously awaiting fall.

I actually have a sweater on the needles but I don't know if I'll go back to it any time soon.  There is a lot of editing and defense preparation coming up soon and I am rather enjoying the turnover rate of small projects.  It just needs to get colder.