All that is left for me now are goodbyes

My thesis qualifying exam is over. Basically, Ben kept pressing me on the feasibility of getting telescope time on the telescopes I was wanting to use and the strength of my argument about constraining the dust mass based on detection/non detection of rovibrational H2 and S I. But beyond that it went smoothly ....and long! The ordeal lasted about two hours. My talk stretched to be about 90 minutes even though my actual presentation time was more like 45 minutes. There was a lot of back and forth arguing and discussion. The scientific value of the project was clearly the strong point of my thesis. I still need to work on the logistics.

I was also cautioned to not go too far to the observing extreme and forsake any of my experience with theoretical work, especially if I'm working with Scott. The omission of the detailed theory/modeling work in the thesis proposal was done on purpose: it is there but it would have made the thesis seem like two theses instead of one. I'm going to do it anyway.

Brad has told me now what will become of 'dollar' (it will be given to Eugene) and is going to finish the remaining scraps of work left on the pulsar disk model.

Now, basically my work here is done. I have no more obligations in LA save transferring responsibility of bills to my roommate, moving, and saying goodbye. This end has been rather anticlimatic: no 'last night' with a girlfriend, no big going away party, nothing. But then again, I don't think I'll shed very many tears when I leave this place. I won't go into details, but I've been wanting to make some changes in my life after I move that amount not to just self improvement but to basically establishing a new identity. I need one: similar to who I was in Kansas but not still not quite the same. I don't like who I've become here in LA, and it's only because I allowed that part of me to decay and focused all my energy on leaving this place that I am actually able to leave it. Soon and very soon I'm going. It's time for saying goodbye.