Phinished

"It's Doctor Evil. I didn't go through six years of evil [graduate] school to be called Mister."

Yesterday, I defended. My committee was kind of enough to tell me right off that the conversation would be about where to go next, not a debate over whether I would pass. Whew! It was pleasant. I was terrified at first, but after the first few minutes, I calmed down and it turned into a very nice discussion. Everybody had great ideas about changes to make for publication. They said two chapters were practically ready for journal submission, and, to quote the senior member of my committee, "You've got three books in here." Of course, all three of those books will require a LOT of work to dig out of the dissertation, but it is nice to know that they're in there. I also had the rare opportunity to coin a new word, "Epilogy" (or epiloguey?)* in reference to my conclusion that still needs a little more, um, conclusion. One committee member later said, "I had written a couple of paragraphs about the conclusion in my comments, but your word just sums it all up."



Today, I dropped off the dissertation at the dean's office, and picked up my regalia at the bookstore. Tomorrow, I go home to see the kids, who are apparently very cute and very confused about how mommy could be a doctor.

In conclusion, whoo-hoo!


*If Stephen Colbert can do it, so can I!