School's out for Summer!

School's out forEVER!!!

WOO HOO, it's over at last! Friday was my last day of classes, but it still hasn't really sunk in that I'm done. I have to drive down this coming week to teach my class one more time and then I'm driving down the following week to see a group of classmates ahead of me graduate. As of last Friday our program has it's first graduate! The others will follow suit this week and next as they defend their dissertations, but this is the first person in this brand new program to post her degree. HUGE deal for us all!

I wanted to focus entirely on my dissertation this summer and only work one day a week, but since my internship training director called a couple of weeks ago with the news that she can no longer guarantee that my internship will be paid, I'm going to fill in for people on vacation and try to bank some cash just in case. For now the funding is still solid, but she said the State is looking hard at it and these next two months before we begin are the most likely time it will be cut, if it is. In that case there is a grant that I may qualify for that is worth about half what the position was to pay, and I will take all the student aid I can get. I hope it doesn't come to that, but seeing what a mess California is in, I certainly have to do what I can to provide for myself.

Still and all I'm really upbeat. I look like death warmed over and feel like I've been beaten with bats, but I'm not tense and pressured anymore and that is a WONDERFUL feeling! Next on the to do list is to get healthy again. This program has damned near killed me off, so I'm going to focus on losing 20 pounds, getting back in shape and just generally taking care of myself the way I should have all along.

I have an appt with a neurologist on Wed to clear up what the mild 'intrusion' is into my spine between C5 and C6. My doc and the radiologist think it is too small to cause the numbness I've had in my hand, but it's certainly in the right spot for that. I'd rather like an explanation than not, and if I can just do physical therapy to correct it that would be delightful. Keep hearing horror stories about 'nerve tests' and am not in the least interested in verifying them.

The lump is unchanged and no idea if it will grow or s shrink or ever go away at all! But seeing as it's nothing dire it can do whatever it wants and shouldn't be a problem.