(no subject)
Lovely... just me and my computer and no one disturbing me. It’s Sunday and I finally have time to write.
Firstly the reason why I worked all night. Graduation happens once a month and the evaluation of the thesis has to be done a month earlier. So if I wanted to graduate on May 16th (which I now am ☺) my thesis had to be evaluated and an abstract as well as the evaluation sent to the institution’s board by April 18th. Well, Tuesday April 15th it didn’t look like I was going to make it. I still hadn’t written a conclusion, the numbering of my references was all muddled up (though I did know which reference belonged where- next time, if there is a next time, I’ll definitely use RefWorks or something) and I hadn’t even talked to the head of the department who was evaluating the thesis along with my supervisor. So at 5:30 p.m. on April 15th, right before I was heading off to the stable I went to talk to the head professor to see if there was even an eensy beensy chance that he might have time to read my thesis and sit down with my supervisor to evaluate it before Friday. (Obviously I should have done that a lot earlier, but I was too busy writing…) He said he was going to Italy on Thursday morning, but if I could give him the thesis by the following morning he could spend Wednesday reading and evaluating it. Since he was willing to prioritize my thesis on such short notice and my supervisor said he’d help me out as best he could I decided to give it a try. So I called the stable owner and said I wasn’t coming, and at six p.m. on Tuesday I started writing my conclusion. At the same time my supervisor started looking through everything I’d written so far. Having never learnt Swedish in school my grammar requires a lot of correcting…. At nine p.m. I went for dinner at a nearby lecture hall. I was lucky that my “lip-balm friend” had just organized a chemistry teachers’ meeting with loads of food and thus lots of left-overs. Stuffed myself with pies and salad and had two cups of coffee (I drink coffee maybe four times a year). Then I carried the remaining food to the fridge at our department so I had food for the rest of the night. By 11:30 p.m. my conclusion was written and I gave that to my supervisor who was sitting in his room correcting my grammar. Then I started correcting the beginning of my thesis. Decided I needed another two cups of coffee, and then I started shaking from the caffeine, so no more coffee, just more food. By 3 a.m. my supervisor had finished making corrections to my thesis and went home to sleep. I worked on. By 6 a.m. the food I was eating was really starting to disgust me, so no more food. By 8:45 I’d fixed up my grammar and my references within my thesis (since my thesis is 144 pages, and I refer to similar reactions within my thesis at least 30 times it took a while) but I hadn’t yet fixed my references to journal articles. I knew the head professor wasn’t going to start checking my journal references so I had to leave those. Then I quickly made a title page and a table of contents and gave my thesis to the head professor at 9:30. I told him I hadn’t yet fixed the journal references, he said it was okay and I continued with that for another 2 hours. Then I got really, really tired and knew I just had to go to sleep. First I had a quick lunch at unicafe, then I went home, slept for two hours and returned to the chemistry lab. By that time the head professor had both read and sat down with my supervisor for evaluation. I got the second best grade, eximia cum laude approbatur, which I am very happy with. The head professor did comment on the length of my thesis. It was twice, if not three times longer than necessary. Yeah, I did know that, I got slightly carried away….. The title of my thesis is “Radikalcyklisering vid syntes av polycykliska indoler och pyrroler” = The use of radical cyclization in the synthesis of polycyclic indoles and pyrroles.
Then I went to visit Gib and took care of him in a bit of a daze. A quick dinner and eleven hours of sleep. Thursday I wrote my abstract for the board meeting. Friday the 18th I had a hoof trimming day again. Four ponies in Siuntio, then a one hour drive to my own stable, lunch at the nearby gas station, trimmed Gib’s hooves and then the normal caring and exercise. Last weekend I spent both sat and sun at the chemistry lab, went to the stable in the evenings. Fixed the references and worked on my layout. No tables or reaction mechanisms split over two pages, a new page for a new chapter, titles and subtitles with the same font size etc. Monday and Wednesday I worked. The first year students started off with their quantitative analyses and needed help with all the machines: spectrometers, pH-meters, conductometers, a Kjelldahl distillation machine, etc. so that kept me busy. Monday I also wrote my final exam, a formality where you’re asked to write an essay on a topic in your thesis, just to make sure you wrote it. Tuesday I got my thesis in a ready-to-be-bound state, and wrote my thank yous.
Thursday I had my first lazy day. Went to visit my great aunt whom I hadn’t visited for a month. Her hip is doing quite well, and she’s walking around with one of those walking frames she pushes ahead of her. Amongst other things we talked about how I used to be scared of her wall clock with a very solemn toll when I was small. I’d forgotten, but remembered when she told me. Then I walked over to my own apartment to see how the very-much-dragging-out renovation was coming along. Seems my bathroom is ready, and looks really cute. A bit left to do in the kitchen. Then off to the lab to print out my thesis 7 times. These I brought to the bindery, and I’m getting my 7 bound theses on Tuesday. By five p.m. I was home again. First time I’ve been home at five this year!! A friend was coming over at six, so I had to clean up all the post I’d received, and all the clothes I’d dumped on the floor after wearing them this past month. He’s not a very close friend but a fellow chemist who graduated in May ‘99 and we’ve kept in touch 3-4 times a year since. Obviously one of the topics of discussion was my thesis. I am very proud of it, and I am proud in how I managed to work all night. After all, it’s the longest time I’ve ever worked in one go. After I’d told him all the details of my strenuous battle he told me that six days before the due date of his thesis his father died. When he’s mentioned his family he’s just talked about his mom and siblings but I’ve never asked questions, I had no idea about his dad. The fact that he managed to get his thesis done on time despite his father’s death made me respect him a lot more than I have. He’s come across as rather boring.
Friday I started correcting my students’ lab reports. I’ve let those pile up within the last month as well. Friday evening I had a joint graduating and leaving party at the stable. Yes, leaving. Gib moves on May 1st. The “mean stable owner” had planted a big pot full of herbs for me and Gib got herbal horse candy. She’d written a card which said “May happiness and success follow you and Gib on your journey into the world.” As usual, I was very touched. The biggest cause of friction between us has been the fact that I’m very protective of Gib and she’s felt I don’t trust her. She told me a couple of months ago “it seems you’re unhappy with everything I do.” And I thought what, what, WHAT? I’ve felt she’s been judging me when I’m desperately trying to do what’s best for my horse. Anyway, Friday evening was good, the atmosphere too.
Yesterday I finally vacuumed my apartment (that is, my mom’s). It took a while since I was listening to the European top 20 on the radio, and every third song was so good that I had to turn off the vacuum cleaner to dance. Then I visited my great aunt and finally Gib. It was really lovely weather yesterday. 25 o C in the sun. And today I’m here at the chemistry lab, just writing away. Feeling destressed and happy. Now’s the time to get in touch with all those people I’ve neglected for a while. A good friend from Germany wrote me after Christmas and said the 80 horse boarding stable where we boarded Jessica has closed down. The wife of the owner had inherited a huge amount of money and gave a three month notice to all the horse owners. But where did all those horses go? And what about the buildings? That stable was a huge part of my life in Germany, and one I’ve always returned to on all my visits, the very heart of the little village it was in. Yes, must write her.
What else? My sister turned 20 and my mom got her new car. In the end she got a Peugeot 207 sw ‘cause my sister said she doesn’t like the Honda Jazz. Last weekend my mom spent the first weekend at our island summer house, and she’s there now too, in fact she’s spending all of next week there and wants me to bring the dogs over tomorrow. Two weeks ago Minis and Didi had another horrible fight. Didi’s really unpredictable and just lashes out at Minis for no apparent reason. Took Minis to the emergency vet on Saturday evening (April 12th) because she’d been bitten around the eye and was bleeding from the corner of her eye and the white parts of her eye were completely red and I wasn’t quite sure if the eye itself might have a puncture wound (though I doubted it since she did keep her eye open). Anyway, first I waited with Minis for an hour, then I was taken into a room where a vet student asked questions about what had happened and then she said “I’ll take your dog to the back room where the vet will take a look at her, you can go sit in the waiting room.” I found that very strange. All I wanted was a bit of fluorescein dye in her eye to check for puncture wounds, but Minis was gone for over half an hour, and they’d cleaned up all minor wounds and given her a shot of pain medication. She was thoroughly depressed when she came out of there, when she’d been a pulling, happy dog with a red eyeball when she went in…. Well she cheered up again when all her thoroughly cleaned wounds were dirtied at the stable ☺
Now I just have to be a really supportive friend to my two good friends who’re planning on finishing their theses by May 16th (the day I graduate and the day their theses have to be evaluated if they want to graduate on June 12th).