So Close!

Yesterday I accomplished quite the amazing feat. I turned in my completed dissertation draft. The one they are going to work from for the defense. The defense is actually scheduled and I have a plane ticket. I'm going to California in 4 weeks to chat about the dissertation with my committee and hopefully emerge from that a full fledged Ph.D. I'm amazed that I've come this far, and amazed that I hit a turning point in what was a very long and arduous road. It didn't have to be, I just made it worse by thinking I didn't deserve to have the degree. I had to do some reassessment and get some perspective. Moving to Philly did that for me. I don't know that I would have finished if I had kept teaching and living in Long Beach. I was too set in my ways, and I felt like teaching was taking every ounce of academic energy I had. Having a 9-5 that I could leave at the end of the day was my salvation. Which is ironic, considering what my job is all about (hint: it's sure as hell not about saving anything).

Anyway, this milestone will pass in a month and then I will be free! What should I do with my summer of freedom? I'm thinking lots of crafting for Sweet Lady Shop, cooking for my recipe book, and some good reads. Can you imagine how many more books I'll have time for? I already read a lot for a person with a job and a writing project. I'm glad I have my Nook (Dr. Spencer Reid). I miss seeing books on the shelf though. I like the covers of the cheezy vampire books. I like seeing books. The future is supposedly all digital, but I'll be one of those holdouts with a library. I have fantasized about a library so long, it would just be wrong to have it be a tablet on a table in a boring room.

Now that I'm not writing.....ghost post! Coming up! I swear.