Since everyone else is self-promoting. I’ve been thinking about this for a while and I think I just have to say it (write it) out loud. I’m really proud that I’m finishing my degree. I don’t want to jinx it or anything since I’ve still got one more chapter to write, but still. Looked at objectively, the whole process is pretty impressive. I began my degree in 1999. I took my comps in the spring of 2001 and then we moved here in the summer of 2001. I spent the next year poking around on the dissertation, writing one chapter and getting some pretty horrible feedback on it. In the fall of 2002, I decided to give it up and started looking for a full-time job. I got this job in January 2003. I did nothing remotely related to dissertating until last fall of 2005. Essentially, I took two years off. When I finish in the spring of 2007, I will have basically completed my degree in five years, writing the dissertation in about a year and a half, all while holding down a 9-5 job, raising two kids, teaching a class, and blogging. Holy cow.