I Almost Forgot in All the Armageddon . . .

Just so you all know, I defended my dissertation on February 15th. It went fine, and I went from being ABDD (All But Dissertation Defense) to DFAPP (Doctor For All Practical Purposes). It becomes official in April, Lord willing and I get all the signatures and papers in. To quote my major professor, "At best, this part of the process is a joke. This is one of those times." My committee members all loved my book, couldn't wait for it to get published, and I walked out feeling like the unusually talented writer I apparently am. I also walked out with a list of agents to look into (Warren Frazier, Alex Glass, Sloan Harris, Amy Williams, Irene Kolnick, Gail Hochman---I'm writing this all down so I have someplace to look in case I lose the napkin) and a rather strange feeling of calm. No postpartum depression, no relief per se; just a quiet sense of having checked off a long-awaited thing-to-do from some list of uncharacteristically responsible behaviors. Anyway, I just thought I'd mention it. I await the requisite mazel tovs and skoals.