How do you spell relief?

Hmmm…after I finished grading last night, I wrote a post about the highlights of my Spring Break.  Said post has vanished.  Unlike other disappearing posts, I won’t claim that this one was brilliant.  Really, it was just a list; no point recreating it.

Saturday night I got the word from my dissertation chair that I’m good to go for a defense in April.  What a relief!  I had gotten my second story back from her, and it needed so much work that I couldn’t help but fear that the novella would be deemed to be in bad shape, too.  I was certain that I would be told that I wasn’t ready to defend this semester.  Neal helped me to see the bright sides associated with this possibility, but the truth is that I want to be done with this degree.  Instead, I was pleased to learn that my chair is happy about the work I did on the novella.  It’s in three parts, and she had gotten through the first part and made a number of specific comments about what is working.  Relief, relief, relief.  I think the second part is in good shape, too, which means that the crux of my focus will be on the third (and shortest) part. 

As soon as I have my date booked with the English dept. and the other members of my committee, I’ll be looking for good airfares to NM and getting in touch with my girlies there to see when we might be able to get together. 

Getting this news was the biggest highlight of my spring break.  The rest of the list was icing, as they say.  It’s so comforting to know that I just have one big push left in my academic career.  Doesn’t graduate school feel that way?  Like one big push, a lull, then another big push?  I’m ready for a nice, long lull!