Are You Dizzy Yet?

I swear I'm going to be permanently sea sick at the end of this whole PhD thing. Hopefully I'll be sea sick with a degree, but the sea sick is a foregone conclusion.

At this point (as of today and thanks to some clever wrangling by my adivsor) I believe I'm on for doing my study (the original study I wanted to do) starting when the kiddos go back to school here - so in just 3 short weeks. Of course, this hinges on a few minor details that hopefully I can get worked out between now and then.

This is a wonderful new development that came after roughly 3 weeks of near despondency because the IRB came back and said that my study was unethical. Why was it unethical, you ask? Because the students were getting additional instruction even if they opted out and this might (somehow) harm them. We went round and round with them but at the end of the day, they were firm. But! This is the school IRB and my advisor worked with the department rep to figure a way that I could do the study and have it be exempt from IRB approval. And thus we have gotten around the issue.

The study will be a tad less rigorous than it would have been otherwise but frankly at this point, I don't think it's possible for me to care less. I want to do the study, write it up, defend it, graduate, and finally stop paying tuition. It's that last one that really speaks to my soul right now, have just plunked down another $3,880 this evening to register for the fall semester. Apparently my school missed the whole "doesn't grow on trees" memo. (Bright side: I only have to register for 6 credits these days since I'm well over the required number for graduation. So hey, it could've been closer to $8K.)

Anyway, the highs of "Yay! Progress!" and the lows of "Crud. Sixteen steps backward." Have left me rather blah about the whole thing. But today the light at the end of the tunnel just turned back on...and I'm really thinking this time it might not be a train.