Seven Quick Takes: Astonished Edition

1. In the wee small hours of yesterday morning, I sent the dissertation off to my committee. They have two weeks to read it, and then on March 10 they will convene. I will present for about an hour and they will grill me for about an hour, and then they will decide whether or not I pass. Passing is the most likely outcome. My advisor wouldn't have let me proceed if she had any doubts, because it would be really bad for her tenure case if I failed and also because she is a really kind person who would never set me up for failure. Me, though, I am seizing the opportunity to be doubtful because that's how my anxious little brain seems to operate. Part of me can't believe it: I wrote a dissertation. I'm almost finished with my Ph.D.
2. To celebrate I went out and bought sock yarn. Two skeins, because I know how to live it up. Then I came home and organized my yarn. (My husband is going to sigh a sad little sigh when he reads that part. Right now our house looks like its keeper has been completing a dissertation and mothering five children, with not much time to spare for filing or culling magazines or tidying the back entryway where the feral shoes are nesting and plotting house-wide hegemony. There are many things that need organizing around here, and the yarn was not what you'd call a pressing organizational need. But it makes me happy to have my stash organized.)
3. It is perhaps a little wacky that I then made myself a knitting to-do list. I have been doing the Ravelympics (because hey, wrapping up a dissertation isn't enough to fill my time here in the last half of February), and I am going to have to sprint to the finish line. I am making a little Tomten Jacket and while I have all kinds of embellishments in mind for it (applied I-cord edging! afterthought pockets! little felt flowers appliqued around the bottom!), I am going to be happy to get the seams sewn and the zipper in by Sunday evening when the Olympics end. 
4. All this time spent writing and revising has made me weary of the sound of my own voice. It also makes me glad I'm not writing a dissertation in the humanities! Kudos to Lilian and blogless Rachel (who should totally start a blog) -- I don't think I could do it. I had good intentions about replying to all of your encouraging comments (I still have good intentions about that), but I was tired of hearing myself yammer on. And on.
5.  I am struck by the irony of continuing to blog when I am complaining about the sound of my own voice.
6. And when my house looks like its organizational scheme was dreamed up by Cornish pixies run amok. (Was it Cornish pixies that wreaked havoc in Chamber of Secrets?)
7. So we'll make these last takes really really quick. Thank you, everybody, for all of your encouragement. It's been such a help to me.