The sky is blue again

Yesterday, I finished writing my alt plan paper. The paper itself is 79 pages. Then it has five pages of front material, nine pages of references, and 55 pages of appendices. Damn. I was shooting for around 40 when I started. Turns out that's near impossible with an eight-point analysis of three artifacts.

Now the paper will be read by my committe, as the oral defense has been waived due to my commuting, non-trad status. My advisor is nice like that. If it contains no major errors or rewrites, I will be officially finished. It has to be in the graduate office by 3 P.M. on Friday, November 16. I plan on turning it in on the 12th. Keep your fingers crossed that nothing major will be wrong with it.

Now, I know none of you want to read a 79-page diatribe about No Child Left Behind and the Bush Administration. However, I do want you to read this, my acknowledgement page, because you're all on it:

To [advisor], a supportive advisor, a quick responder of emails, a knower of
all things, and a generally wonderful man. I have learned more from you in my college years than everyone else combined. Thank you for advising me for the past eight years, both educationally and otherwise.

To [committee member], your guidance and advice in the one class I took from you helped
me to see my own potential. Thank you for supporting my wayward process of
learning, for reading and critiquing this paper, and for being a strong role model.

To my darling friends, thank you for providing advice and coffee breaks, for
putting up with my neurosis, and for being present for me in every way.

To Leslie, for being the kind of sister and friend I can look up to in every way but height.

To Mom, for supporting every decision I have ever made, both good and bad, helping me
realize I will always be good enough, smart enough, and successful enough for
you, and subsequently, myself.

Most importantly, To Patrick, my amazing husband, my personal advocate, my best
friend. No one believes in me more than you, which means more to me than any
degree ever could. Thank you for making me laugh, for holding me when I cry,
and for agreeing to spend your life with me. I love you.

So now I sit and wait for an email telling me I'm a genius and to go ahead and get that monster printed. Of course, I have a seven-page lit review to write for class on Monday, and I still have six weeks left of class, but the major hurdle is behind me.

Exhale.