Lab Cat is hosting Scientiae this month, and the topic is "summer vacation". This is one I can sink my teeth into.

My summer was truly a monument to Murphy's Law...with one possible exception, but I'll get there. Or, as one of my favorite sayings goes, "If you want to make God laugh, tell Him (or Her) your plans."

The plan: (and the reality)

1 - Finish masters thesis by end of May. By some miracle, this actually occurs.

2 - Defend thesis in early June. Unfortunately, although 1 worked out, my thesis is a piece of crap and needs to be redone. My defense is pushed off until July.

3 - Submit final thesis by July 4th. Kind of hard to do when I haven't even defended at that point.

4 - Spend oodles of time riding bike. The second time on the bike, I wipe out and have nasty injuries on both arm and leg. No bike riding the rest of the summer. Spend part of the summer using a crutch and wrist brace.

5 - Spend oodles of time playing with my younger son. Hard to do with a thesis.

6 - Spend oodles of time "hanging" with older son (cuz you know he's too old to "play"). Hard to do with a younger sibling fighting for what limited attention I have.

7 - Find apartment in Big City. Apartments are scary, and so we go with a more expensive alternative

8 - Move in slowly over the month of August. which doesn't open until Sept. 1st.

9 - Graduate by the end of the summer. OMG, I got one thing right! I come in two days before the deadline. But still...it's an exception.

10 - Start new school on September 1st, well rested. Oh yeah, we forgot to mention that you're supposed to be in town by the middle of August for various stuff happening at campus.

11 - Find time for a family vacation. Forgot to mention that when I'm not working on my thesis, my husband is working on his.

The good news is that all my fingers and toes are here, I have friends who were willing to put up a homeless grad student (and they even provide internet access), I'm happily graduated, and I'm liking my new school a lot so far. Next year, however, we really do need to fit in a family vacation.