Friday, September 23, 2011

Set back...

So, we've hit a setback and have bumped back the date a few weeks.  Trying not to get too bummed out... as long as I walk in December! Chin up... kind of...

Wednesday, September 14, 2011

Sign Sealed and Delivered!

Holy Hallelujah Batman! The dissertation is done! God bless Kyle and Jax for formatting it for me--I mail it out tomorrow and await the defense.  I didn't think I was going to be able to address all of the edits, write an intro, write an abstract, but it's done, really done!!!

Sunday, September 11, 2011

Worst Week

This has been the hardest week of my life, and it doesn't end until Thursday afternoon when I mail out hard copies of my dissertation two weeks before the defense.  I've been revising my chapters according to edits and recommendations from my adviser and co-chair, which are spot on by the way, and made the whole thing so much stronger! But have yet to attend to my introduction and conclusion! Must push forward though, as my adviser is flying in from her new University--rescheduling is just not an option.  It's come down to just working as much as I possibly can and accomplishing what I need to accomplish.  It's unreal what you can make yourself do when you simply have to!

Poor Craig has been reduced to errand boy (driving the hour into U-Penn where his student ID grants me access to all texts Ivy League) and my grad assistant, looking up historical data I need to back up my claims regarding Thackeray's perceptions of Jewish and black citizens in Victorian London: not sure which role he prefers... It's frightening how much he knows now regarding all thing Victorian.  Ask him not only who wrote The Prime Minister but how it ends and what this reveals about nineteenth-century Antisemitism, I dare you!

He goes back to work tomorrow, so in this regard I'll be on my own.  But I have incredible IT savvy family and my brother and father are ready to help me format the monstrosity, currently 220 pages and counting.... Onward and upward.....