Less than a Month to Dr.

After four rounds of revisions with my advisor, I have sent my 141-page, 24,821-word dissertation to my committee, and have begun the process of scheduling my oral dissertation defense for the first or second week of May.

Yes, it’s happening.

Frankly, it feels a bit unreal.  If all goes well, I will have a new title within a month.  21 years of education will have finally concluded.  And then we’ll be moving into a new house.  That we bought.

I’ve also been in contact with the powers-that-be at Old Dominion (my new job) to get my lab equipment purchased.  It’s looking pretty good.  When all is said and done, I’ll have 1) my office, 2) a miniature film studio, complete with green screen, 3) a graduate student working lab, 4) a presentation area, complete with projector and 100″ screen, and 5) a 20-system configurable computer lab with a master control system/server.  Let the research begin!

As for the unexpected trouble last time, it turns out that there’s not much to worry about.  The flooring allowance can be dealt with by moving it into an addendum, the agreement we need to sign has probably already been signed and I am the victim of a form letter, and considering our cash reserves, a sizable student loan payment doesn’t really matter – it’s just bank policy to source any non-payroll deposit larger than $500.  So there’s not really anything to worry about.

But these things are always so much clearer in hindsight, aren’t they?