I crashed almost immediately after my shower and woke up about noon when my stomach decided it wanted food and now. I stumbled out of bed and into my kitchen,
blinking at the sun light and opened my fridge to figure out my options.
Carrying a bowl of my favorite tuna & corn ramen-ish dish I rather sadly wheeled the punctured remains of my office chair away from my desk and sat down on
one of the cheap folding chairs I picked up somewhere along the way. I'd miss that chair, especially since I didn't really have the means to replace
it what with living on my TA's salary and NSRC grants...
That thought brought me up short, forkful of noodles and fish halfway to my mouth. My degree! How the hell was I going to finish my degree like this? Three
years and tens of thousands of dollars were swirling down the drain before my eyes, made all the worse by the original Alicia managing to loose her PHd.
A gurgle from my stomach got me eating again and I toed my computer's power button. I rather dejectedly ate my noodles while Windows booted. First things
first, I'd check the forums, then I'd start figuring out what to email my supervisor. 'Yeah sorry Prof. Thanks for securing me NSRC funding for
the summer, I'm bailing on you.' Oh that would be just great.
There were only a handful of replies but reading between the lines it seemed like I wasn't alone in this. That was a small comfort at least.
I swapped to the Carleton portal site and stared at the email composer for the better part of an hour before closing it. Screw it, I didn't have any
meetings with Prof this week, I could procrastinate a bit. I could even go in to the office. I wasn't TAing during the summer term so I didn't have
to interact with too many people. Just my supervisor, his neighbor and the one guy I shared my office with. A strange girl showing up might freak him out a
little, but I hadn't seem him since mid-June so I figured he probably wasn't in town.
As Alicia I'd let the burns she'd suffered, and the unfortunate, and long hospital stay they'd required stop me from getting my degree. Take the
life she'd worked so hard to build away from me. It was *not* going to happen again. I could find a way. I would find a way.
Which left only the looming thesis deadline and the incompleteness of my research standing in my way.
Feeling a bit better about myself I turned on the radio. It was almost time for the hourly CBC news, and I was feeling a little disconnected.
blinking at the sun light and opened my fridge to figure out my options.
Carrying a bowl of my favorite tuna & corn ramen-ish dish I rather sadly wheeled the punctured remains of my office chair away from my desk and sat down on
one of the cheap folding chairs I picked up somewhere along the way. I'd miss that chair, especially since I didn't really have the means to replace
it what with living on my TA's salary and NSRC grants...
That thought brought me up short, forkful of noodles and fish halfway to my mouth. My degree! How the hell was I going to finish my degree like this? Three
years and tens of thousands of dollars were swirling down the drain before my eyes, made all the worse by the original Alicia managing to loose her PHd.
A gurgle from my stomach got me eating again and I toed my computer's power button. I rather dejectedly ate my noodles while Windows booted. First things
first, I'd check the forums, then I'd start figuring out what to email my supervisor. 'Yeah sorry Prof. Thanks for securing me NSRC funding for
the summer, I'm bailing on you.' Oh that would be just great.
There were only a handful of replies but reading between the lines it seemed like I wasn't alone in this. That was a small comfort at least.
I swapped to the Carleton portal site and stared at the email composer for the better part of an hour before closing it. Screw it, I didn't have any
meetings with Prof this week, I could procrastinate a bit. I could even go in to the office. I wasn't TAing during the summer term so I didn't have
to interact with too many people. Just my supervisor, his neighbor and the one guy I shared my office with. A strange girl showing up might freak him out a
little, but I hadn't seem him since mid-June so I figured he probably wasn't in town.
As Alicia I'd let the burns she'd suffered, and the unfortunate, and long hospital stay they'd required stop me from getting my degree. Take the
life she'd worked so hard to build away from me. It was *not* going to happen again. I could find a way. I would find a way.
Which left only the looming thesis deadline and the incompleteness of my research standing in my way.
Feeling a bit better about myself I turned on the radio. It was almost time for the hourly CBC news, and I was feeling a little disconnected.