Sorry for the silence. I've been SUPER busy. You see. . .

I've finished my thesis!

At least, enough to schedule my defense. My chair is satisfied with it, and one of my readers thinks it's "very good work," which makes me want to dance, 'cause this is the professor whose class I failed way back when. Whew!

In any case, it now stands at 41 (and a bit) pages and 15,864 words. The defense is tentatively scheduled for November 20, but my chair hasn't confirmed that he's available yet. Unfortunately, that date is past the deadline for graduating in December, but as long as I finish everything, including getting the thesis submitted to the library, by December 18, I can still graduate in April without having to take any classes. It doesn't mattert too much either way for me, since if I were to walk (which I haven't decided if I'm doing it yet) I wouldn't do that until April anyway. So it's just whether my diploma says December or April. Po-tay-to, po-tah-to.

I'm almost done. I can't even tell you how happy this makes me.

Now, to prepare for the defense!

4082 / 5000 words. 82% done!

Unfortunately, I'm apparently not a very good English major, because I must use little words. The above word count only represents 10 1/2 pages. :P I was hampered by a fairly busy weekend (wedding shower, BYU football game, etc.), and yesterday I didn't get nearly as much work done as I should have, because I felt a little sick. Turned out I'd put my contacts in the wrong eyes that morning, which had given me a headache, which made me dizzy, and so on, and so forth. So my grand total wasn't as much as it should have been.

However, Dr. Walker was pleased with what I had gotten done. 10 1/2 pages, after all, is better than no pages at all. We talked about what I planned on doing further (I started in the middle, so I have to go back and write the introduction, lay a foundation, etc.), what sources I planned to bring in, where I needed more commentary, and stuff like that. He wants a full first draft by Oct. 13, two weeks from today. He would have wanted it by next Tuesday, but I'm leaving for Disneyland that day, so that won't work. :P

Even though I didn't fully meet my goal, I'm still really proud of myself. After 5 years of work, I finally have something to show for it. 10 1/2 pages of my own writing, on my thesis topic.

I'll take it.

0 / 5000 words. 0% done!



I have officially applied for December graduation.

Also talked to my thesis advisor today. He wants 20 pages by Tuesday. That's approximately 5,000 words. So I stole a NaNoWriMo progress bar.

5,000 words by 2:00 Tuesday. I think I can, I think I can, I think I can. . .

(In other news, I got this book delivered to me today. Am going to try the hypnosis CD tonight. We'll see what happens. Right now, I'll try ANYTHING to get me to sleep better.)