unsupervised! & under pressure!

With the family taking an extended stay on the mother ship, I'm fending for myself here at home.

While a bit lonely, it's also quiet -- which is exactly the point. My dissertation ideas and I need some quality time together since I have a critical deadline approaching rapidly. Here's a nugget of tender encouragement from the graduate handbook of my department:

"Students who had not had their prospectus approved by April 15 of their 4th year will not be employed to teach until the prospectus is approved. Because the funding of advanced students is through teaching, this means that failure to secure prospectus approval will result in at least a temporary denial of Departmental funding."

Yikes. Is it March of my 4th year already?

Thus moved by the handbook's beautiful prose, I am here slaving away on my prospectus while they are there, brightening the lives of our immediate progenitors. Don't feel too bad for me though; in between all that work, I'm going to have seven nights of uninterrupted sleep. That might even make the rest of this situation worth it.