July 10th, 2009, was a very important day for me. It was on a Friday afternoon that I made the trip to the University of Redlands for an orientation meeting for the incoming doctoral students in the School of Education.

On July 10th, 2012,  I was in Redlands again, presenting with my classmates at the Summer Institute on Leadership in Educational Justice with the letters Ed.D. after my name. Yes, that's right. Exactly three years to the day.
And there you have it. Bookends on a three-year window. It's amazing, really.

I am around a lot of people who don't think that it's all that amazing, but I know how amazing it is. I finished a doctorate in less than three years. In that three years I've read thousands of pages, written (at least) hundreds of pages, and slept for fewer hours than I am used to. I've fallen in love and have been heartbroken more than once. I've seen families expand through birth and marriage. I've been to many--too many--funerals. I love my best friend--my beloved Milo. And now I have a Barney.

It was a rough week, so instead of celebrating the milestone, I was arguing with my collaborators, suffering from insomnia, and dealing with a car emergency. But, now that I have a chance to breathe, I have to say, yay, me!

I've been doing a lot of research lately. Yes, again. I'm trying to clean up my dissertation so that it incorporates the concerns that my committee expressed. Dr. Mitchell is really a stickler for making sure things are all in order, which makes for excellence but also creates a lot of work. So I am doing a lot of work. LOL

And July is a busy month for me, research-wise. We are presenting at the Institute for Social Justice conference next week. By "we," I mean me, Rebeccah, and Jean. Now Dr. Mitchell is helping us (a lot!), so he is a part of this, too. We are going to try to turn this paper into our AERA paper. The proposal is due in 3 weeks, so we need to get going pretty quickly.

I've been writing and writing and writing for the last week, and for two days in a row, I met with Dr. Mitchell to discuss my dissertation and the conference paper. I should have known that this would suck up my entire days, but I had faith that it would only suck up a few hours each day. Boy, was I wrong.

It was exhausting. I am so tired...zzz

my dissertation reaches 26,000 words. What do you think???

I'm at 25,772 right now.

This is how I feel...

...from a former Congressman this morning! That was pretty cool and a little disconcerting. I think he was amazed that (1) I knew to look for him and (2) I was able to find him. Unfortunately, he was unable to help me with my research. But he took the time to call me and tell me so in person. Thanks, Sir! Wish all legislators were so responsive.

So, I had my dissertation proposal defense (finally) on Monday. And I passed. It was actually not too bad. So now I have one more hurdle to go...the actual dissertation defense. I hope to post something about it before the end of May...the end of April would be even better. Then I will get back to blogging...I think. Cross your fingers and say your prayers! :)

Will everyone be really disappointed if I can't march in graduation until next year???

I miss blogging...

Just dropping by my own blog to say "Happy Leap Day!" Now I have to go back to my enormous piles of work. See you in April. LOL

So, it's another Valentine's Day. This is one of the days that I miss teaching middle school and high school. College students are less generous (at least in the case) than younger students. I actually enjoyed the kitsch I got from "my kids" every year, and I really liked observing teenaged boys trying to figure out how to impress the girls. Yeah, I do miss it sometimes, but it's not the time to grieve.

Anyway, I'm spending the evening with my computer and my TV. On the computer, math stuff, education policy articles, and Facebook. On the TV, the Westminster Dog Show. It's one of my favorite things to watch on TV, so I'm not really feeling disappointed that I'm staying home tonight.

I know, you thought that this was going to be one of those moany "Singles Awareness Day" posts, and I think it may have started out that way in my head. But then I thought about how I'm going to be graduating soon and going to Vancouver to rub elbows with important education policy people even sooner. So staying in and working on my dissertation is worth it. Mr. Right can wait for his Dr. Right. :)

So, I bought this new scrapbook called SMASH*. Check out the link here. I found it at Swain's when I was Christmas shopping and then found a bunch of accessories for it last week at Michael's. Cute, right? I pulled all of the stuff out on Friday and looked at everything and sighed. I have a paper and a dissertation to write; I don't have time to scrapbook. But I guess I have something else to look forward to in the next two months. IF I ever get this thing finished! *sigh*

Today marks exactly 2 months before my AERA paper is due. Despite my best intentions to be done with this thing early, I suspect that I am going to be down to the wire with my writing. I am currently reading through the notes that Dr. Mitchell gave me on my first draft. This is, by the way, no simple task. There are lots and lots and lots of notes. And, Dr. Mitchell, scientist that he is, is VERY thorough. I know that this will help me in the long run, but I'm kind-of overwhelmed right now. I keep looking at these pages and pages and pages and wonder if I'll ever be done with this thing. And I really need to be done. As much as I love school, I really need to move on with my life. I need to find a stable job, stop worrying about money, buy a house, and move on. I can hear it now: "You can't keep waiting for your life to start." And that's not what I'm talking about. It's not about waiting for something to happen. It's about not slogging around in the same place for too long. And I think if I don't finish this thing this year, that's what I'll be...slogging.

And yet, I procrastinate. Even writing here is a form of procrastination, although I am also investigating inflation rate calculators even as I write this. So I guess I ought to go figure them out some more. See you whenever.