Saturday, December 03, 2005

It's Over

The month.

The week.

The thesis.

My graduate studies.

This week has been one of the most challenging in a very long time. Monday hit me like a runaway truck and I somehow managed to get through my thesis defense on Tuesday afternoon. After a few edits here and there, my completed thesis was turned in and approved yesterday. A security system was installed in my house on Thursday and the new window was installed yesterday, bringing K and I back to normalcy - minus one or two things, of course.

As you can imagine, this week has been a roller coaster of emotion for me. Of the things that were stolen, the most valuable by far was my laptop computer. Not just valuable as in the value of the laptop itself, but what was on the laptop. I will admit that I was not as good at backing things up as I should have been - So, hundreds of digital photographs; recipes; files; financial information; and yes, even my Master's thesis - gone. Yes, I did back my thesis project up onto a CD, but the CD was in the drive when the computer was stolen. I am VERY thankful that I printed it all out before our break-in. And right now, I am in the process of keying it all back in so that I have an electronic copy.

As for the financial information - It was all password protected, but my fear got the best of me and I changed all of my accounts to ensure the security of my finances. All in all - what a freaking nightmare! I have insurance, but there are so many forms, policies and procedures involved that it will be quite some time before I get any financial relief, if at all. The deductible is SO damn high! In the meantime, since I had to freeze all of my accounts, I have not had any access to my money for the past week. In fact; I still don't. Until new debit cards and such come in the mail, I am living day-to-day on my credit card.

The timing of this is also really bad - The holiday season. Santa Clause came to my house early this year and gave us a new window; a new security system and various other things we needed in order to take care of all of this. But anything else that we wanted; or wanted to give just won't be possible. I fully realize that what happened could have been a lot worse; and I am ever so thankful that K and I; and my cats are safe and unharmed. (Well... my tiny power puff of a cat is actually quite traumatized by the event; but other than that - we're all okay.) I understand this, but it is depressing nonetheless.

Of course, the upside of the roller coaster of emotion is that I have my Master's degree. Not only a Master's degree, but I completed my graduate studies with a 4.00 GPA. I never really did well in high school - I wasn't all that into academics to be quite honest. My apethy towards education even extended into my college career and I failed out of college after the first semester of my sophomore year. I have since come to realize that this event will either make someone or break someone. It was the kick in the pants that I really needed. Needless to say, I changed my entire work ethic; worked my ass off; and proved myself worthy enough to get back into my college, and graduated with a GPA just shy of "with honors." Honestly, that's not bad, considering that my GPA had dipped below a 1.00 during my freshman year. So, I have to say - regardless of all the shit that I had to go through to get this degree; I am quite proud of it and feel quite ready to go out into the world theatre production.

And with that said, I think I am ready to acknowledge the fact that the holidays are upon me and might just begin decorating my house a bit. (No glass balls though. If the cats break them (as they do every year) it will set off the alarm.)

P.S. This change of publishing format, sans picture and "mood intro" will be in effect for a while. I am currently fighting with K's Mac (which was not stolen) and the score is currently:

Mac: 8 Dr. Dexter: 0

Some people say that Macs are the best machines in the world. I am not one of those people. In fact, I like to poke fun at this Mac by pointing out that the burgler took the PC and not the Mac. ;-)

1 Comments:

Blogger Nikki B said...

Congratulations on finishing your thesis!!!

I have to confess I am a major Mac fan. You just have to love the Mac and maybe try a little caress to get it to do what you want :)

5/12/05 2:19 PM  

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