did i accidentally kill my two goldfish?

i'm been procrastinating, in terms of cleaning my fish tank. i've had benny and joon for nearly a month, and the fish tank has desperately needed to be cleaned. well, today was the day to clean it! decided the poor fish could use a clean home. don't ever remember changing a fish tank previously. manda showed me how to change the tank. but after i put the fish into a bowl of water while i cleaned the tank, they became extremely still. when i put them back into the clean tank, with new water and the special water drops, they were floating on the top for awhile. i knew they weren't dead because their gils were moving. but, they kept floating on the top for awhile, sometimes on their sides. was i supposed to put those special drops in that bowl of water????

they seem to be doing better now. perhaps i just shocked them for a spell. poor fish. well, at least they have a clean home, for now.

my dissertation defense date has been set!

good news, good news, good news. heard back from my second reader today. he sent an attachment with ten pages of comments on my dissertation. haven't went through all the comments, yet. but, they seem helpful and constructive, from what i've seen. and, he said i don't have to make corrections before my defense.

my goal is to go through those comments carefully in the next week or so.

my defense is set for thursday, july 6, 2006, at 1 pm. tonight, i just purchased our plane tickets for our trip to columbia, missouri. so far, we have a defense scheduled and plane tickets in hand. yay!!!!!!! while we're there, of course, i keep us busy with activities, hopefully not too overwhelming for the hubby.

what a way to make my day so much better. yes! the big dissertation.

my day started out all wrong. made the mistake of reading an e-mail from our lawyer at 1 AM in the morning. can't write about the particular issue and put it in cyberspace, since the case is still in session, pending, or whatever the right word is. being preggers and reading a message like that late a night - bad idea on my part. kept me awake for at least two hours, thinking about the issue and the impending reality of having to go to court.

anyways, not much later, spoke with my dissertation advisor, who just returned from a conference overseas. turns out she approves my dissertation. what?! MY DISSERTATION ADVISOR HAS APPROVED MY DISSERTATION. that means that my dissertation goes to my second reader. sent a copy of my dissertation to him earlier today - the title page, chs. 1-7, and the works cited. and, my dissertation advisor told me to schedule an oral defense date. i am so excited and so relieved.

so, even though i'm running on low fuel (from sleeping so poorly yesterday), i'm feeling great. praise the lord that some things in my life are going well, even though other things might not be.

things going well in lily's life now (let's be positive!) -

• dissertation has been approved by my first reader.
• hubby's picking up more household duties - like car maintenance.
• niao mi hasn't thrown up for a few days.
• i love my hubby so very much.
• hubby loves me a great deal.
• we have a little munchkin in utero who is growing everyday and getting ready for her entrance into the world.
• troy may have a job lined up for the next academic year.
• we have wonderful friends, locally and elsewhere, that we dearly love and that love us back.
• one of my really good friends, richard, is coming to visit around christmas time (he's originally from england, though he may be coming from geneva - don't know).
• parents, sister and brother-in-law had a safe and enjoyable journey overseas.
• the list doesn't stop here! i have so much for which to be thankful.
  

the dissertation is out of my hands, for the moment, whoo hoo!

On Friday, May 26, I had an unpleasant, lengthy conversation with my dissertation advisor. She spent a good thirty or forty minutes basically making me feel worthless. Only in the last ten minutes, did she give me very general directions and suggestions (I mean VERY GENERAL) for the chapters she didn't like - Chs. 5 & 6, on Confucius and on comparing Aristotle and Confucius. Honestly, those two chapters do not affect the overall content of my dissertation significantly.

Cried over the next day or so. She made me feel super bad! Being preggers and having worked hard on the dissertation in recent weeks didn't help.

Got to work on revising Chs. 5 & 6, though I didn't know exactly what she expects or wants. Took a look at a couple of resources, per her suggestion, before making revisions.

This past Monday, June 5th, I began reading Chs. 1-6 for typos and grammatical mistakes. Today, I finished proofreading the chapters and finished writing the conclusion chapter - Ch. 7.

Not even half an hour ago today, Wed., June 7th, I e-mail Chs. 1-7 and the Works Cited to my dissertation advisor. My dissertation advisor's not due to arrive back in the country from attending a conference for another couple of days. She requested that I e-mail her Chs. 1-4 or Chs. 1-5 by June 9. Instead, I'm not only sending her material early, but I'm sending the entire substantive content of the dissertation.

Hope she arrives back in the States more cheerful and less stressed than when she left. Hope she calls me only after she's had some rest and only after she has genuinely taken a look at my dissertation. I really hope the substantive work for the dissertation is finished. We shall see.

For the time being, I have at least a day or two rest from dissertation work. Whew! What a relief. I'll take whatever I can get.

I'm so TIRED of working on my dissertation and reading my dissertation

I have finished revising those two chapters, Chapter 5 and 6, with which my dissertation advisor had some problems, to the best of my ability, given the little information she gave me. Finished revising Ch. 5 yesterday and finished working on Ch. 6 today. Tomorrow, I've got to revise portions of Ch. 1, in which I talk about Confucius, Ch. 5, and Ch. 6. From there, I've got to check Chs. 1 through 6 for any typos or mistakes. I'd like to finish writing Ch. 7, the conclusion chapter, if time permits. Whatever the case, I'm suppose to e-mail at least Chs. 1-4 to my advisor by June 8. My goal is to e-mail her the entire dissertation.

But, I've got to confess, I'm really sick of reading my dissertation. And, I'm sick of working on my dissertation in general! I want to be done NOW! Will it ever be done?