This is the song that doesn't end

Do you know this song?  It is one of the most annoying children's songs EVER.

This is the song that doesn't end, it just goes on and on my friend.  Someone started singing it not knowing what it was, and they'll be singing it forever just because...this is the song that doesn't end...(repeat)

So.

I passed. 

End of story right?

Nope.

There are conditions to passing.

One is that you make the recommended changes to your paper.

The changes they wanted?

1) Some editorial things.  A typo, a missed comma, etc.

2) Further explanation of a method...I had to add a paragraph explaining why the summative results of a decade can be different than the results of individual years.

3) Removing two tables.  I was fine with this because they were confusing data that my statistician threw in. They even confused me and my advisor had talked about removing these before the defense.

4) Creating ten new tables.  I created a screen shot in my defense that showed two tables that were on separate pages on the same ppt.  They liked those and wanted 10 of them...one for each year. 

5) Create a new appendix with some additional information.

Wow. Writing it out like that sounds like a lot.  It really wasn't all that bad.

So, I made all of these changes.

All totalled it was 207 pages.

I needed two copies on resume paper and one copy on plain paper.  Too much for my poor little printer to handle, so I sent them off to Office Depot for printing.

Thankfully I had a 40% off coupon.  It still cost $72.00!!!

As soon as I transferred the files to OD, I called Fred and burst out into tears. 

He laughed a little at me. 

But it was the strangest thing.

It was the reaction I would have thought I had after the Defense, but here it was.

Done.

What am I going to do with all my time?

What was I thinking? 

I actually did it.

I actually finished it.

It was over.

 

I went to Office Depot to pick up the print outs and put them in order to turn in to the graduate school.

A little background here: There are so many rules and regulations about writing and printing your dissertation. 

Example: Margins.  1 1/2 margins on the left and top. 1 inch on the right and bottom.

EXCEPT...the first page of each chapter has to be 2 inches from the top, which can be done by adding three single spaced returns after the normal bizarre margins.

ALSO...page numbers need to be 1 inch from the bottom....so, very little text actually goes onto a page.

Even after I turn in my paper to the graduate school they can (and usually do) KICK IT BACK to the student for formatting revisions.

So...it's not done.

 

As soon as I turned it in the Graduate School Advisor looked at one of the pages, the signature pager that my committee signed off on and said "That needs to be two inches from the top and it isn't, you are going to have to reprint this with correct margins and have them sign it again."

So...figuring that there would be further issues with format, I held off, waiting to see what else she found wrong with the paper.

She contacted me on Thursday.  I didn't add dots on my Table of Contents

Chapter 1..............................................................

and there were times when my subheading had longer names and took up two lines. In those cases I needed to put the page number on the second line of text. 

After the dots of course.

I now have to make those revisions.

Get the signature page resigned.

Then maybe it will be done.

Maybe.