You know you are close to defending your dissertation when ...

I have set a defense date ... September 6, 2012.  This is 4 years minus 3 days after defending my masters (September 9, 2008).  A day I barely remember, and a night where I really only remember thinking I broke my foot.  At some point I will write a blog post about all the things I will miss when I finish here ... maybe recapping some of the best parts of gradschool so that when I look back over the past 7 years (eek yes 7 years) I will only have happy memories!  But today I thought I would share the top 10 reasons I can tell I am getting really close to finishing ...

1)  I have read 6 books in the past 3.5 weeks ...
2)  Over the past 4 months I have watched 5 TV series (Mad Men, Roswell, Life Unexpected, Downtown Abby, The Guardian) ... some good some bad.
3) I joined a new gym a month ago and have only been 5 times
4) My coffee consumption has increased by a factor of 2 ... or 3 (I should make a graph haha)
5) I spend my nights not sleeping, thinking of the most AMAZING ways to write up my results, only to wake up in the morning and have no idea what I was thinking.
6) When I am not thinking about work ... I am worrying about who I might invite to a hypothetical graduation party when 95% of my friends have already left.
7) I am looking up recipes for what to make for my defense day.
8) My parents want to come out ... however I won't let them buy tickets yet because I am not entirely convinced I will be able to finish by Sept. 6.  Not sure when reality will settle in, but it has not happened yet.
9)  My schedule is tending toward the nocturnal ... which sucks because Ben wakes up at 5AM to go to work :(
10)  I am avoiding email/invitations to have fun because I feel horribly guilty when I am not working, so guilty that I spend a lot of time messing around on the internet so that I can avoid worrying about the guilt ...
11) ... I have started writing in this blog again :)

oops thats 11 ... and btw these are in no particular order :)

I'll know when I am *really* close to finishing, when I start wearing the same thing to work every day, wearing socks with sandals, and forgetting to shower... thankfully I haven't reached that part of the "finishing the hardest thing you have ever done" process yet :)