Saturday, August 16, 2014

The Doctor Is in...

How silly is that title. But yay, I am done!!! I found out a couple of days ago that my dissertation was officially accepted by the university. I'm all but diploma at this point. I came back from my trip this past Tuesday, and since then I've been trying to catch up both on what I missed at home and on sleep. Still in a bit of a fog, to be honest (partly because I can't shake off the sleeping habits I acquired this summer, combined with having to wake up early to take my son to school), but I am definitely more relaxed than I was the past few months.

Getting the rest of the committee signatures last Monday was a nice experience. I had a lovely chat with two committee members. The last one was my other co-chair, and while waiting at the cafe for her I saw this:


Looks like the TARDIS has been moonlighting as a door somewhere, doesn't it? Haha. I thought it was pretty cool, seeing something like that while on a journey specifically seeking to become a doctor myself. ;-)

Co-Chair and I spent quite a bit of time talking about how to turn the dissertation into a book. I was just following her lead ... that's the way she works, constantly thinking about the next step. It was flattering, I'll admit. She's not the easiest person to impress, and she was quite happy for me and called the project original. It was probably the best face-to-face meeting we'd ever had. I'm still not interested in getting a job as a professor and having to move away, but I'm considering applying for postdocs in the L.A. area. We'll see. Competition is incredibly fierce all around nowadays.

After that meeting, I had a fantastic dinner with Joanne and Dorothy -- both of whom are members of the MotleyFlue -- and we took these:



Of course we had to take the requisite Fluevog shot, courtesy of Dorothy. I wore my new burgundy/black/pink Sandras and Joanne wore her blue Guides (which I also have). Our pose in the second photo is due to a private joke, but it actually turned out to be a good photo of us, which is hilarious since we were totally hamming it up! Anyway, I had such a fun time with these kickass women. (I have to say, I'm so blessed to be surrounded by amazing women in my life, from my friends to my all-women dissertation committee to my mom and sisters. I have some great men and boys in my life, too, but I definitely have close relationships with more women than men.)

Also, the food in the Bay Area is reliably excellent. That's one thing I miss about living there. If you ever get a chance, try Isla in San Bruno (yummy Filipino food) and Paisan in Berkeley (American). And the quality of the Thai food in San Francisco, even the small hole-in-the-wall places, is outstanding.

Anyway, I don't have anything big lined up for the fall, but I'll probably look into applying for postdocs. I also want to work on NaNoWriMo in November. I can't wait to go back to a very different genre of writing! Cheers!

xo, Gladys

Sunday, August 10, 2014

It's Happening

Having a blast with my funny boy during a hike at Yellowstone National Park in June
I drove half the day to my university yesterday. I'm here on a mission: to get my committee's approval signatures for the dissertation and submit all paperwork to the graduate office. So far, two signatures down, two to go! I had a lovely long chat with one co-chair over coffee yesterday. Though I don't expect to go into academia, she suggested that I think about turning it into a book manuscript and publishing it at an academic press somewhere, and then offered some leads. (My reaction: Wow! Really?) Anyway, hopefully everything will be done by Tuesday. Cross your fingers that it all works out. It's still sinking in that I'm almost done. I'm really going to be a "Doctor" soon. Whoa....

Random but here are bonus photos of my outfit for a 1950s theme birthday party from all the way back in May. Man, I have been neglecting this blog.


Dress: Emily and Fin via ModCloth | Socks: Gold Toe (for girls) | Shoes: Fluevog Danielson

The shoes are Fluevog of course (I showed them off on the blog last year), and the dress is from ModCloth. Of course. When I find a winning combo, I tend to repeat it over and over. :-)

xo, Gladys
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