9-month

I did what we call in our program the "9-month" today which is conveniently the same length as human gestation. This "9-month" in our program is a meeting with your committee about 9 months before you expect to graduate, where your committee assesses your progress and sorts out your plans and approves or disapproves in general. They usually approve and it usually goes pretty well but I was a little nervous in general, particularly because I had to give a talk on some stuff I haven't talked about much yet and it was important that I be clear and confident. It was definitely good practice for my interview coming up in September. I got really positive feedback and a few glowing compliments that I think were well time since I was just getting myself all nervous about this upcoming interview.

I had been told through the grapevine that it's a good idea to bring food to all of your committee meetings so I went to a fancy grocery store in town (Lunds) and bought some good stuff and brought it today, and my committee members were all totally blown away and said they never get food except at oral exams (which two of them had been at that morning). It's these societal laws that always get me - to bring food or not to bring food? To cut up all the fruit and make a salad or to serve it separately? To use a fancy serving platter or to just throw it all on the table? These are the questions. I never know when it's appropriate to do what. That's why I like people who aren't offended by inappropriate behavior, like my boss, who didn't even notice a guy in our dpt that got all set up to do a sex-change surgery (before my time) which means he definitely wouldn't notice the appropriateness of my food display.