That One Extra Box Makes a Big Difference!

My prospectus isn't shrinking! But it's not grown much either.  It's now 2 1/2 pages, which is about three quarters of a page more than I had yesterday.  I'm also now fairly certain that it will be five chapters long.  But blah, blah, blah...I find myself getting bored with this even as I write it.

So, anyway....  As I said in my last post, my chair is crazy awesome and probably the most brilliant woman I've ever met in person.  And because her brilliance is so, well, brilliant, I have a tendency to get very nervous and/or feel like a complete slacker in her presence.  I've lost count of the meetings we had where I felt like I spent the entire time babbling about what I hadn't yet done, making gross misreadings of texts, or generally feeling like an idiot.  Today we met to talk about some program called DS-PRO where I have to fill out my goals for the next year.  It's kind of a pain in the rear, but I have to say I like this program because it made me feel a little bit more accomplished than I did before.  Part of the program asks me to check off my "previously accomplished goals," which was nice because I have achieved things like finishing my course work, forming a committee, and taking my comprehensive exams.  But what was particularly nice was that beginning the research for my prospectus and beginning to write my prospectus were actually two separate goals.  So, in short, my 2 1/2 pages and tentative research and bibliography totally count as two separate separate goals!  So even though I really can't do one without doing the other, being able to check off that extra box as achieved made me feel pretty darn good.  And, in addition to honing my mad box checking skills,  I spent an hour writing my prospectus today (which is why it's now longer),  and I confronted a student who had plagiarized a paper, so all in all I feel like I've gotten stuff done today.

So, now I'm going to relax, watch some Murder, She Wrote, and, since my friend Rachael has decreed today Chocolate Cake Monday, eat some chocolate cake.  Imaginary readers of my blog, you go eat some chocolate cake too!  It is Chocolate Cake Monday after all.