Much less dread!

I met with Dr. Chair yesterday, and, although zi tried hir level best to rain on the parade with discussion of requested emendations (!) and hemming and hawing, the positive news could not be suppressed: Chair judges the diss more-or-less defense-ready.  And, sweetening the news, later that same day, zi emailed the whole diss committee (and cc'ed me) that it was time for us to organize a defense date, in anticipation of my making the (essentially cosmetic) changes that Chair requires from me.

This means that I can finally press the other committee members to get back to me about dates, which should have happened a long time ago, but what the hell.  Naturally, Dr. Awesome has already said that zi has another defense scheduled for the day I'd prefer, and wants to do the next Monday, but whatever: working through these details is infinitely preferable to sitting around my apartment, full of angst about the uncertainty of my future.

And, in the meantime, the little emendations that Chair wants will give me something to do as a break from scanning the job announcements.  I'm still a little stunned that Chair actually requested that I do something that will generate more work for hir; I was dead sure that Chair would avoid this eventuality at all costs.  This only complicates in confusing fashion my understanding of my supervisor.  Just when I thought I understood hir deal, and could rant appropriately in response on this blog and at happy hours, zi does this.  Perhaps Chair simply has the good angel and the bad angel on each shoulder, like I learned about when I was a kid, and the bad angel is simply the better interlocutor, most of the time.

Case in point: the emendations do not address the final diss chapter, which Chair didn't get around to reading after a solid week.  Sigh.  I ought to hear about those emendation requests today or tomorrow.

Ah, and putting the icing on the cupcake: now that we're openly discussing when I will defend this semester, I feel confident enough about my progress to order my graduation regalia.  I may be a homeless vagabond come the summer, but God damn it, before that happens, I'm going to walk in my velvet tam.