Knock...

Knock... knock.... Is anybody still there? You didn't all leave yet, did you? You didn't wait for me to come out from underneath my rock? Oh well. I guess I have to start building my readers base from scratch. If you did hang around waiting for me, thanks. I usually bounce back pretty quickly after disaster strikes, but it took me a while this time. And I may still not be entirely my old self, but that may have more to do with the horrible cold virus I've contracted than continued depression due to not passing the oral exam.

Over the past week and a half or so, I've been puttering around the lab, mainly doing stuff that I would have to do anyway, no matter what my decision is. Like cleaning up, organizing my samples, gathering my data, and such. My adviser is his usual friendly, happy self, full of encouragement. One of his best friends in the department, who is also on my committee, urged me to go on. He insisted that it's feasible to finish, and he agrees with my adviser on what I need to do to finish. Now, if we could just get the rest of the committee to agree....

A few minutes ago, I sent out an e-mail asking which dates int he end of March would be good to re-do my exam. That is a decision of sorts. At least it means I'll be taking the exam again. I reserve the right to bail out any time I feel like it, though, and call the whole thing off.

The thing is, what else would I do with myself? I'd be miserable at home, being in the lab is what I do best, it's what I love to do. So, gradually, I've re-entered the lab, even though I mainly do housekeeping right now. I have to write up a report on everything I've done so far, which is essentially the second chapter of my (intended) dissertation. If it wasn't for the nasty bug I caught, I might have made some progress on that.

On top of that, I'm leaving town for a few days and will not be back until Saturday afternoon. So, I'm putting any major things on hold until then. Meanwhile, I expect to be back to blogging as usual from now on. Glad you stuck around!