De Nile

I love that corny saying, "You must be Egyptian, because you are living in denial." It always makes me laugh, just like my trusty old Homer jokes (the blind greek poet)(What did Homer say about reading and writing? It's all Greek to me!)(What did Homer say about Australia? It's all reef to me!)(Seriously, laughing already). So anyway, I know I'm in denial, and now I think my advisor is too.

My particular problem is preparing for this new baby. No stroller, crib across town with a friend, no clue where the bassinet is, no bottles, a couple random packs of diapers of unknown size, no newborn clothes for girls (but a basement full of boy stuff, randomly stacked up), and no real sense of urgency. This is very different from the first time. I'm guessing that either things will come together now, or 3 years from now, no big. The only thing that really must get sorted out in the next 3 weeks or so is a name. I'm rather enjoying the zen of not speculating on names, but I can see that this peaceful feeling might flash over into irritation on day T+1, when the kid still doesn't have a name. Might have to harsh the household mellow and insist on some sort of conversation about this, but I think I'll wait until next week. Or the week after.

My advisor this morning was quite happy with my current results. If I produce one more set, slightly refined, then we can fix the date for my pre-defense. This is the moment I've been waiting for, but... I'm not sure I can pre-defend before this kid is born. Not because of the state of my work, but because of the state of my body. I have about 3 weeks until D-day, but I seem to use 75% of my available energy getting out of bed. I coast through the day on brain and will power alone, then use the remaining 25% getting home, feeding the existing kid, and falling into bed myself. So, the resources are somewhat limited. If it wasn't for the ice cream turbo charge, I might not be able to get into bed. Considering that the alien was in full escape mode this morning while I presented my slides, I think my advisor is deploying a bit of willful blindness. You'd have to be right, to tell a woman in her 9th month to prepare for a major presentation that will determine the success of her PhD, while she's just hoping to get through every day of work without any embarrassing amniotic incidents?