My Seussical Life for 2005 February 19

It is almost 5:00 am. Samuel climbed into our bed sometime between 1:00 and 2:00 am. When the disturbance was too much to ignore, I woke up to remove him. Then around four o' something I noticed another moving body in my sleeping space. This time, with more difficulty, I woke up and discovered Atticus. I might have kicked Dave awake to take care of him, but Dave's eyes have looked so painfully bloodshot the past few days. I got up to return Atticus to his bed. Then I burrowed under my covers and tried to fall asleep myself. Instead I stared at the backs of closed eyelids, listening to the heater come on and off. I usually have a hard time relaxing enough to fall asleep after night wakings, but especially after multiple needs in a single night. Be warned, all who look forward to creating offspring in your lifetime: children require round-the-clock care. They don't compartamentalize their needs and activities in day time/ night time periods, like adults. You would-be-parents will always be on call, could be needed at any hour. That might sound like a death sentence. Sometimes it is.

The problem this morning is that I've started thinking about The Future. We're well into the fourth semester of Dave's course work. We have only one remaining. By this time next year, Dave will have completed his oral and written exams, and will no longer be a PhD student, but a doctoral candidate. Then, we will only have one task to finish: the dissertation. Granted, this is the most formidable endeavor of all. We have no idea how long of a time committment it will require, but a year is a fair and generous estimate. So, two years to go. Only two Lawrence Farmer's Market seasons left for sure, though maybe three. But in one year, we'll be scoping out the job market, placing applications, floating resumes. That will be exciting. Dave sometimes pitches me different scenarios for jobs. "NYU or University of Chicago, which one?" "UVIC, University of Toronto, or Acadia University?" "BYU or the U of U?" "U-Dub or USD?" Some of these are realistic options, but some of them are made of dreams only. In the end, beggers can be selective, but they have to pick something, and after a cumulative 6 years of marriage with one or the other of us in school, it will be a welcome change to have a "real" job.

Last October I wrote about ambitious plans to possibly finish school in three years. Realistically, it will have taken us four, and if we keep to the one year allowance for the dissertation, this time two years hence, we will be finished.