Katie (my thesis advisor, tersely): "Let me know when's a good time for us to talk about your thesis."
Mary Anne (in a sudden panic, having not expected to hear from Katie for weeks): "Hey -- are you back in the country already? I guess so. Today's not so good. I could talk anytime Wednesday/Thursday/Friday that's convenient for you. Although if you could reassure me that you haven't decided it's total crap and that I should just start over and plan to graduate in three years, if ever, that would be nice."
[spend next hour utterly unable to work on anything, checking e-mail compulsively every five minutes, watching Buffy in between, an episode in which, incidentally, Xander's teacher turns out to be a big giant insect that wants to bite his head off -- until finally, Katie sends e-mail response:]
Katie: "I enjoyed it tremendously--and of course I have a few suggestions. :-)"
Whew.
My heart rate is slowly returning to normal.
There are times when I’ve found that IM, or more often the phone is better for one’s sanity than email…
i.e. the “we’ve gotta talk” email from a loved one…
glad it worked out!
Yay! Congratulations, Mary Anne.
Thanks. Is big relief.
Silly Mary Anne. Like you’d write a crap thesis.
Heh. It’s remarkably hard to be objective about this stuff. Just because *I* like it doesn’t mean it’s any good — I probably won’t really be able to tell that until five years after I finish it. So it’s good to get outside reassurance.