carlisled

A big milestone today in my PhD progress. Finished my comprehensive qualifying examinations. I should find out in a few weeks if I passed, though I am feeling pretty good about them. Seven months of reading, nearly two hundred articles and books, fifteen hours of flurried, timed essay writing. All finished. Next step, is my dissertation prospectus: gathering research, stating my problem, investigating previous research. It is all very exciting.

Swung by to hang with Sean and Rod afterwards--always fun seeing the dynamic between those two and kind of looking back on our semester. Then Rachael here stopped by to help me celebrate too, so I blipped her. Even Tiger made an appearance via a tupperware of his baked goods--thanks sir! I've mentioned before how important my support system at home has been with Leah, but my supporters at school have been so significant as well, in forms of both my friends and colleagues, and my committee members of professors themselves as well. Glad this phase is done. Okay, reflection complete.

Leah took me out tonight to celebrate. We went downstairs for a simple, quiet happy hour. It was nice. Then we walked up the street a ways to buy a MegaMillions lottery ticket--a record setting jackpot of 536 million! This is actually a number I cannot begin to fathom. The odds are set at 1 in 286,000,000 to win--no problem! But I loved just being outside (after being in all day), just walking around. It's nice to be able to walk to get a drink, walk to dinner, even walk to the 7-11 for an impulse lotto ticket. Sometimes I feel like I'm living in a real city! I jest, it's pretty great here. But...of course that was canceled a bit when the two TCU bros walking past commended me on my "beret."

PS: Oh yeah, today I hit the 15 pound weight loss mark since beginning my diet on October 22nd! Woohoo (Of course the beers and bacon sliders haven't factored themselves in yet, haha).

PPS: This is the most I've typed in a Blip for a while.