Dissertations

So this week four of our Providence friends -- all from J.'s department -- have dissertation defenses. Three of them are done by now, I suspect. Two, including the one still to come, involved a married couple. Can you imagine? A husband and wife living in the same space, each defending a dissertation in the same week -- with overlapping committees? When we went to Washington the other day, we left our car at their apartment; when we reclaimed it at 3 a.m. I'd like to say that waves of stress were emanating from the building, causing psychic anguish in all passersby, but frankly I was too tired to notice.

The other two defenders of freedom! were a woman who was scheduled to have labor induced the day after her defense, and another woman staying at her house. Word on the street is the former got comments from one committee member two hours before her defense, during a routine e-mail login meant to distract her from the impending ordeal. I'm surprised she didn't have the baby right then.

Here in our little stressland we have J.'s oral exams next week (her advisor was involved in, I believe, three of the above dissertation defenses -- poor man) and my usual "I should be doing more work" dissertation-writing.

Anyway. My e-mail messages (and LJ comments) are piling up. No time to deal with them now. I have some ideas for this Pentex game, and I should write them down before I forget.