Reprieve!

I am writing this at 1:30pm on Tuesday, March 10th. Sitting at home in my comfy chair. This is significant.

My comps defense has been deferred for a month, at my request! Woo-hoo! I hesitated to ask for it, since I've done 95% of the work already and I want the professors to know I take this seriously. But my health just hasn't been up to snuff lately -- not just back pain, which has been bothering me a bit more in the past week or so, but these strange dizzy spells have really been doing a number on me. I had a dizzy spell right in the middle of a meeting with my dissertation advisors; I lowered my head, fanned myself with a nearby journal article, and tried to keep talking calmly about assessment measures and statistical methods. (Both my co-chairs watched me silently with that "deer-in-headlights" look men seem to be so prone to at the sight of a woman in physical distress or tears.)

It's been happening more and more often, sadly. I don't really come close to fainting, but it's darn inconvenient and unpleasant. Plus, it affects my thinking, alertness, and reaction time. Periodically I feel like the monitor screen in my brain flickers in and out. Nooot the best time to try to stand up to the onslaught of aggressive attempts by two professors to tear my thesis apart. (The third one is mostly a teddy bear. I have no fears about him. He's the type who asks a question and then gives you half the answer.) I told the department chair that I would end up either bursting into tears (did I mention I've been hyper-emotional lately, too?) or staring blankly at the professors while I slowly processed the sounds hitting my ear into a coherent expression of intent.

Happily, I was told "no problem at all." Phew! What a weight off my mind. Now I just look forward to a road trip, seeing the family, and spending several days in the mountains!