5 days...
That's about the last of my Garnier Fructis anti-frizz serum. The smell still makes me think of when I bought it: snow in Rochester (NY) and Christmas shopping with Alli. They didn't have it at Nugget when I looked recently, so I bought some Bed Head stuff instead. Haven't needed it much over the past two years, but my hair has finally gotten back to a length at which I need something above and beyond conditioner to keep it manageable. (It's at my waist now, not long enough for me to be ready to make another donation.) As for Alli, twice when she's written looking for emotional support from her friends, I have written to her and received no response, so I decided not to deal with that any more until after my qualifying exam.
Yesterday I got up at 5AM to drive two hours to go to a conference. This resulted in me not feeling so great yesterday, and sleeping ten and half hours last night. But I did meet people who might have blackberry for me to study, which is great. And I feel so upbeat this morning. If I can just study all day today and all this weekend, then Monday morning I'll have my last practice exam with the lab and in the afternoon I will chill out and probably review some of what I have studied. Then Tuesday morning I will take the exam and then it will be over. Unless I don't pass, which would suck monkey balls because it would mean that I would have to study for another month or two and then take the exam again.
To recap:
Two months (broken up early on by a vacation) of putting my research on hold to do nothing but prepare for a three-hour oral exam.
In the exam, I have to defend my proposal in order to prove that I can do research in genetics, and show general knowledge of genetics to prove that I could teach it at the undergraduate level. And maybe I should know who's up for the Nobel Prize this year to prove that I'm not living in a cave.
Failing out of the program entirely is highly unusual, but it is not uncommon to get a "no pass" and have to retake the exam. Most people pass, and I really, really hope that I do.
Passing means that I "Advance to Candidacy," which is a fairly abstract concept as far as I can tell, but it does mean that I get to put together a dissertation committee and officially start my dissertation research.
Really looking forward to getting this over with. I might celebrate by clothes shopping or going to see Beverly Hills Chihuahua.
I realize that people in professional programs have to go through much more stressful stuff... but hey, they'll get a higher salary after graduation too.
Yesterday I got up at 5AM to drive two hours to go to a conference. This resulted in me not feeling so great yesterday, and sleeping ten and half hours last night. But I did meet people who might have blackberry for me to study, which is great. And I feel so upbeat this morning. If I can just study all day today and all this weekend, then Monday morning I'll have my last practice exam with the lab and in the afternoon I will chill out and probably review some of what I have studied. Then Tuesday morning I will take the exam and then it will be over. Unless I don't pass, which would suck monkey balls because it would mean that I would have to study for another month or two and then take the exam again.
To recap:
Two months (broken up early on by a vacation) of putting my research on hold to do nothing but prepare for a three-hour oral exam.
In the exam, I have to defend my proposal in order to prove that I can do research in genetics, and show general knowledge of genetics to prove that I could teach it at the undergraduate level. And maybe I should know who's up for the Nobel Prize this year to prove that I'm not living in a cave.
Failing out of the program entirely is highly unusual, but it is not uncommon to get a "no pass" and have to retake the exam. Most people pass, and I really, really hope that I do.
Passing means that I "Advance to Candidacy," which is a fairly abstract concept as far as I can tell, but it does mean that I get to put together a dissertation committee and officially start my dissertation research.
Really looking forward to getting this over with. I might celebrate by clothes shopping or going to see Beverly Hills Chihuahua.
I realize that people in professional programs have to go through much more stressful stuff... but hey, they'll get a higher salary after graduation too.