So, it's been a month since I defended and submitted my paperwork to my university and I feel great!!!  My stress levels have dropped tremendously!  My mood has improved, my habits have become healthier, I feel less rushed and harried.  I've even finished reading a book and started and finished another!!!  I can fully enjoy my weekends and after work hours :)

Buuuttt... I still sometimes get this anxious knot in my stomach that has become all too familiar over these past few years.  I'm calling it grad school PTSD.  Because that's what it is really.  More than five years of massive egos, games, a psycho, controlling, micromanaging, manipulative advisor who, up until a month ago, was the barrier between me and my goals, who wouldn't have phantom grad-limb stress after all that!  And then there's the very real stress of look for and applying to jobs.  But, hey I'll take this stress over grad school stress any day!

So, what have I been up to this past?  Well I have continued with my internship, and it looks like there will be a position opening up soon that they want me to apply to :) still not putting all my eggs in one basket though, but it does help relieve the stress some.  I finished my month of being raw vegan but I'll write a separate post on that.  I have stuck with my exercise routine, I'm building myself back up to jogging for 5k straight, I run a 12 minute mile, so for that's around 36 minute.  So far I have built up to jogging for 15 min, walking 2 min, and jogging another 3.5 min for a total of 18.5 of jogging :)  I particularly pleased when I think that during the summer on a good day I would jog for 5 min straight once, but now, on a bad day (when I'm tired, sore, or haven't had enough water during the day) I jog for 5 min straight and another 2 min :)  I have been focusing on building healthier eating habits (related to the raw vegan month I did).  I've been reading a lot more, I started and finished a book in less than a month...for me, that's big!  I'm a slow reader and while in grad school I didn't feel like coming home and reading a book for fun so I really hadn't read anything for fun in quite some time.  I quite like it!  I have a whole list of books to read, I'll busy for quite some time.  I'm hoping to read even more once I have a job and don't have to spend time after my internship searching for one.  I have been watching my TV shows (this Fall is a doozy!), and I have been seeing more of my friends :)  I have also been doing some digital house keeping stuff and going through my e-mail accounts, particularly my campus account, and deleting or saving e-mails since my account will expire a few months after graduation.  I've been organizing my pictures and other digital files on my computer, scanning lose papers and reducing the amount of paper I keep.

So, I've been keeping busy, but I've been doing normal human things and not crazy academic things.  And every once in a while I have to pinch myself and remind myself that this isn't the dream :)

That's all folks!

 I'M A DOCTOR!!!!!!!!!!  IT'S OVER!!!!!!  The power hungry control freak egotistical assholes are out of my life!!!!!!!  Woohoo!!!



Now that I'm done, this blog has served most of it's purpose, which was to give me an outlet during my ABD process, also to get me into the habit of writing, anything, daily.  While I won't be deactivating the blog, I definitely won't be writing in it daily like I have been leading up to the defense.

Oh, and speaking of the defense, it went smoothly.  No questions, just a few suggestions for expanding certain sections.  It's over!!!!  And I'm so excited to have time to do everything I love again :D :D :D  I'm also really excited to not have to constantly worry about a dissertation or about psycho people keeping me from my goals and what I deserve and have worked hard to achieve.  I'll have to dust off that list of things I want to do after the defense :) Looking forward to it!

Signed,
Dr. Blogging PhDoc

This fever called living

The past few days I've been meeting up with friends.  I've. Been. Meeting. Up. With. Friends.

Happy days

I woke up this morning and felt wonderful and relaxed thinking about how I no longer work for my psychotic, quite possibly bi-polar, controlling, manipulative, and self-serving advisor, or as I refer him/her, ASS #1.  :D :D

Summer Solstice!!!

Today was the longest day of the year!  Although I usually remember the solstice, I don't actually do anything to celebrate it or observe it.  I've been interested in astronomy since I was six, though I would not call myself an amateur astronomer because I don't have that much zeal for it anymore (life and such), so I pay attention to astronomical events but don't always actively go after them.  This year was different.  I guess because I'm nearly done with my education, I've quit working for my psycho advisor (huge, HUGE weight off my shoulders...for another post), and I made LOADS of progress in my work this past week, I just felt in more of a celebratory mood.  So to celebrate, I went to a museum with beautiful gardens.  I spent some time in the exhibits and in the garden, had a picnic lunch, walked around the museum grounds, had tea.  I was there for six hours!  I love these long summer days :)  Afterward, another museum was hosting an evening summer solstice party with a DJ, hors d'ourve, cash bar, and the galleries were open.  Best part of all, the event was free!!!!!  The museum I went to during the day was also free!  I think my favourite part of the day was when I took a nap on the grass, soaking up warm rays of the sun :)  I don't know what it is about summer, is it that I was born in summer or that all throughout our K-12 years children look forward to the freedom of summer, is it the pools and swimming, the possibility that long days and short nights bring?  Well whatever it is, I think summer is my favourite season overall.

Last day at work!!

In the immortal words of Homer J. Simpson: Woohoo!!!

And I finished watching season 2 of Bob's Burgers :)

So many good things!

Season 2 of Bob's Burger is on Netflix!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  Woohoo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  Guess we know what I'll be streaming tonight and tomorrow night!  I've seen a third of the season 2 episodes.

In other news, I basically told my advisor to suck it.  Not in those exact words, of course.

ALMOST DONE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I finally heard back from my outside committee member about availability for my defense!  I'm going to have my defense in 5 weeks!!!  Yahoo!!!!!!!!

Break out the champagne!

My advisor gave me his/her availability and told me to start scheduling my defense for late April!!!!!!!!!!!!  Woohoo!!!  I'm breakin' outta there!  I also found a new committee member to replace the one who is going on leave soon :D  Looks like that marathon revising session over the weekend really paid off!!  Everything's comin' up Milhouse!

3 down, 2 more to go :)

Woohoo! I finished my formatting for a journal submission!  Three submissions down, two more to go!  And, I took a nap today!!!!!!  That was the best part of my week!  And I filed my taxes!  Can't wait for my return; I need to replace a couple gaskets.

I'm No. 1!!!

Woohoo!  I'm the first of my cohort to be graduating!  Yea me!!  I think I'll reward myself with a caviar dinner :)  ...when I have time... :-\  for now I want to reward myself with sleep.

Sugoi!

The time is close, boys and girls :)  I ordered my grad gear and diploma frame.  Also, submitted an revise and resubmit!  I refuse to call it and R & R because I want to continue associating R & R with rest & relaxation, not revise & re-submit.

1000!!!

1000 page views!!!!!

In honor of this event, I have included links to information about famous 1000's:

Check please!

I gave my dissertation proposal defense today, check!  Only one more meeting left!  I'm so exhausted, can't remember the last time I was this tired.

Four more years!!!!!

Obama wins!!  In the immortal words of Homer J. Simpson:

And, I just love this one...outdated now, but still funny :)

100!!!!!!!!!

Woohoo, I made it 100 posts!!!!!!!!!  In honor of this achievement, I have collected links about the number one-hundred!  Be warned the links are random and K-pop song does get stuck in one's head easily.

First off, a Wikipedia entry about the number 100:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/100_(number)

Fun Fun Times!!

I went to a free wine tasting/wine match making with a couple friends today. I can't remember the last time I had that much fun! Before the event, we filled out an online survey about our wine preferences. At the event, everyone got four free glasses of wine, but towards the end of the wine tasting portion they were just giving out wine. They also had hor d'orves, a DJ, and a free random book about relationships and the author signing the book. After the wine tasting portion the DJ continued to spin and there a love saxophonist and room to dance. And all of this was for free!!!!! Granted they wanted to get their label out, but I had an amazing time for free! I think what helped is that everyone was a working professional, not immature undergrads; they were all closer to my age and place in life. I wish I could find events like this all the time :( c'est la vie.

Jogging, not Red Bull, gives you wings!

After nursing an Achilles tendon injury for four and a half, which caused me to have to put my jogging and a lot of other exercises on hiatus, I was finally able to start jogging again today!  I had forgotten how much my body loves jogging, it immediately put me into a better mood and energized and relaxed me after a long week at work.  Even though I got supportive feedback from my advisor today regarding my dissertation and am in the process my scheduling my pre-defense, I still felt kind of meh, sluggish, tired, and unfocused today.  Now, I'm razor sharp and ready to climb a mountain!  Wait, aren't I already climbing a mountain everyday??

(^v^)

Woohoo!!  Finally got that reassurance!  Met with my advisor today and got the go ahead to start scheduling my pre-dissertation meeting.  This meeting and my defense are all that stand in my way of finally being a PhD!  Also, I have the ok to give my committee my dissertation chapters at this pre-dissertation meeting, instead of giving them a proposal I will never send in, since I've already written my dissertation.  This means that I can get more focused feedback from my committee on the dissertation and be that much closer to having a dissertation they will approve! :D :D

Committee etched in stone

I finally have the committee I want!!!  No more ASS #2!!!!!  It's official!!  To celebrate, I went geocaching with a couple friends, we didn't find the cache :( but we had fun anyway, then we went for drinks and had more fun ;)