To the world you may be one person, to one person you may be the world.

We picked up Sydney from the vet hospital today. She was in there for three days. I am a little more receptive to this new "change" in my life. I have always enjoyed my lifestyle - get up on the weekends and do whatever I wanted to do. Now, I will be giving Sydney insulin shots twice a day for hopefully not the rest of her life. Big change, but well worth it. If she lives another 10 years, I will be more than happy to change my lifestyle.

OK - enough of the personal stuff. Today completed our first week of the summer semester of Year 3. We officially have one week and one semester left of coursework. We had Dissertation Seminar III today. We discussed the Proposal Defense in great detail. What is a Proposal Defense? It is the what, why, and how of your dissertation. It is the first three chapters of your dissertation. It is the Introduction, Review of Literature, and Methodology of your dissertation. Get it? You meet with your committee of three and "defend" why you feel your topic is important and how it will contribute to research in that field. I sort of defended my proposal back in May when I met with my committee to discuss my methodology. The meeting was to be a preliminary meeting to the "big" meeting. They were all very pleased, and with a few minor changes to my Methodology, the proposal defense is complete. Whew - big load of my shoulders.

Although the two courses I am taking this summer are geared more toward K-12 education, I am learning a great deal. Dr. W. is so passionate and enthusiastic about "supervision" and "managing the instructional environment". Although he uses supervision in the context of an educational environment, I convert his lectures (in my head) to the corporate world.

The doctoral program I am currently enrolled in is cohort based. As part of the cohort, you really get to know one another very well. I really like everyone in my cohort. I do have to say that I am fortunate to be in a classroom with such great scholars. We all respect one another. One woman decided to leave the program in the first week of the first semester. I felt bad for her, but within minutes of meeting her, I knew that she could be a thorn in our side. She freaked out on just about anything and everything. I understand that there is a lot of stress, but at least finish the semester. She had 3 days left to at least get 6 credits toward a doctorate.

Well, I am tired and it is after 11:00 on a Friday night. I spent my evening walking 4.5 miles with one of my best friends. Yep - no social life. I have to get some type of exercise in every day to keep my sanity.

Until next time!