Last few weeks!

Tuesday, April 24 through Friday, April 27
I got back from Roswell on a Tuesday and I went around to see all the profs who were on my dissertation committee. My boss said he would sign all the paperwork, and another said he would sign the dissertation on the Thursday before I was to leave town for Durham. I couldn’t find the third member, and to my dismay, I checked his mailbox to see that my dissertation was right where I left it. I found some of his research group members and they told me he would be in for one day that week, Wednesday, before he left town for a trip. I went home that night and prepared everything I needed for my dissertation. I printed up the necessary paperwork, and went back to school the next day. I got my boss to sign all the paperwork with no problems, and then I went to camp out at the missing committee members’ office. He finally showed up and saw my partially signed paperwork in my hand, and agreed to sign and said he would read the thing later. Knowing that 2 out of 3 members had given the dissertation a thorough read, I wasn’t too worried. The next day I got the third member to sign and all was well. I turned it in on Friday, April 27 at 1:30pm. That was when I officially became a Dr. I guess.

Saturday, April 28
I drove 45 minutes to the car shipping place to drop off my Camry to have it shipped to Durham. I showed up at the door and the place was abandoned; empty parking lot and a locked building. Knowing that I only had an hour to find the place because they closed at noon, I frantically called around. I was leaving the next day and didn’t have any other way of shipping my car to Durham. I was finally able to ascertain they had moved a couple of days earlier to a new building a quarter of a mile away. Whew! I drove there dropped off my car, and got a ride home to Davis with Michelle, a friend of mine from my early days in Davis. I finished Saturday packing and throwing out junk, and then Sunday hopped on a plane to Durham.

Monday, April 30
I spent Monday “hiding out” around Duke. My official start date is Tuesday, so I just caught up on reading.

Tuesday, May 1
New job, new people, new boss, same problems. Lots of paperwork, lots of walking around on campus to get an ID card, parking spot, health insurance, direct deposit, and a mailbox. After a long day trekking in the 90 degree heat I went to Costco with Lori.

Wednesday, May 2
We move our entire lab to a brand new building tomorrow, so we will spend today doing inventory and packing items in boxes. Yay.