THE DATE IS SET!!!

We have finalized the date of my defense for Tuesday, June 3rd at 9am!

WHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOP!

I arrived home to see the email below:

Nice Work. You may send it to your committee. Please let them know that you would appreciate their letting you know within two weeks of any significant concerns they have with your document, so that you will have the opportunity to address such concerns prior to the dissertation defense.

WHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Update on the "D" word

Its funny to think how many times I have pressed the Send button thinking it was the last time my "little" paper would be broken into little pieces (think Willy Wonka) and sent across the world wide web into my advisor's inbox prompting her with a greeting "You've got mail". I have led myself to believe that this false sense of hope would actually actualize itself into reality. Too bad we can't think things and make them happen. So to make a long story short, we're still truckin' along. As Murphy would have it, I left my wonderful 2 gig flash drive in College Station on Friday. Not to fear, I had an old data set backed up on my computer so I am not freaking out just yet. If the journey to completion would be equivalent to my 5 hour trips to Laredo, I would say I am at the corner of Northstar and Coral Hills. The only problem is, that I have ran out of gas, and I am currently pushing my 2 ton pickup truck around the corner and up the driveway. My legs are tired, my hands are blistered, but I am almost there. I can tell that I am almost there, because my legs are cramping and my feet hurt. I know that if I stop pushing the truck, even to take a breath, it will run me over. There is no time to break down and feel sorry for myself. I think if anyone asks me how I am feeling, or if I am okay, my strong momentum will give in. If you have ever been in a situation like this (especially if you are a girl, I know you know what feeling I am talking about).
Last night, as Word "unexpectedly quit", I slowly pushed my laptop in front of me, and put my head in my hands. I started to giggle to myself about the situation and counted my blessings as the new Word for Mac is really good about recovering my previous work.
Jesse has been a real trooper. Every time my neurotic anxiety kicks in and I start complaining about him chewing too loud, drinking too loud, cracking pistachios, or even breathing too loudly (I know, I have a problem), he just smiles and moves to the other couch. He doesn't tell me how neurotic or irrational I am acting, he just complies. When I got up to get some water, he offered me a hug. And I (the neurotic one, remember), said "I am sorry if I take a hug now, I will break down and I need to just buckle down and get this done" I could see the understanding in his eyes as he just smiled and poured my water for me. Kudos to Jesse for being my number 1 fan.
So, ladies and gentlemen, keep me in your prayers as I turn the corner and drive up the block, I can see the house, but the truck is heavy. I will update you later on.

Words I am tired of using: Additionally, Furthermore, However, Consequently, Therefore, Unexpectedly, Similarly, Contrary to expectations, Consistent with the literature.

Prayer Request: PLEASE PLEASE keep Katey and her baby in your prayers. The baby has the the cord wrapped around its neck twice and she is on strict bed rest at least for the next two weeks so she can reach 36 weeks.

The government got in the way.

I was set to hopefully meet with my advisor today. Nut she was selected for jury duty, so my meeting was postponed to Friday at 1:30. Oh well...A couple more days of prayers that it can be my final draft before it gets sent to my committee.

I just sent the second to final copy

of my dissertation to my advisor. I am hoping, that is. I have a meeting with her on Wednesday and have asked the day from work to finish. My goal is to have a final copy printed and to each of my committee members so as to set my defense date. This largely depends on my gracious advisor who is very intelligent and very (hmmm) picky. So, I gave a great big sigh, and clicked on the SEND button. Now, its just time.

Thank you for your words of encouragement. I liked them so much , I printed them out and blew them up as a constant reminder that I've got lots of love in my corner. I could almost here the Rocky song when he's training.

Late night update

Okay...maybe posting my daily advances will allow me to avoid procrastination.
I just emailed my advisor a second draft of my chapter 4 (discussion).

For those of you that have no clue what a dissertation looks like:

Abstract : brief synopsis of researchhypothesis and findings

Chapter 1: Intro and Lit Review - An extensive literature review that answers the question "What is aggression? What is the current research? What are the accepted theories? Why will your research be innovative? On what theoretical framework are you basing your hypotheses?" (By the way, we don't just say hey researching THIS or THAT would be cool... ;) )

Chapter 2: Methods - Describe the participants (subjects), the assessment techniques, the analyses to be run on your data and the reasoning behind why you decided to use these statistical techniques versus others

Chapter 3: Results - The jargon most people skip. In this section, the nitty gritty statistical results are presented. You see most of the tables inthsi section with brief explanation of what was found.

Chapter 4: Discussion - THE WHOLE PURPOSE IN WRITING THE DISSERTATION. hehe Here you say what you found, why you think you found it, what it means for future research, implications for practice, and limitations to your study.

So there you have it...some dissertations are broken up into 5 chapters...others into 4. They should all have the same information. At this point in time, I have completed Chapters 1-3, and my discussion is approaching completion fairly quickly. The full thing is approaching 70 pages. FUN.

For those you are who just got completely bored reading this...I apologize...I need to find motivation to do this. If this doesn't work, my promise not to play Wii MarioKart until I finish should do the trick.

Dissertating updates

Alright guys and gals, this is it!!! I have a meeting with my advisor next Wednesday and I have to have this done by then. I need all the prayers I can get.

The following patron saints are on my list of intercessory prayer list:
Saint Joseph of Cupertino (test takers)
Saint Christina the Astonishing (mental health professionals)
Saint Dymphna (mental health professionals)
Saint Expeditus (against procrastination)
Saint Thomas Aquinas (academicians)
Saint Jude of Thaddeus (hopeless causes)

The countdown begins....