A Crisp Clean Dollar Bill, A Repeat Customer
ME: "Guess what? I just filed the official final copy of my dissertation with the university today. I took it to the university printing & copying service center to have it copied on archival paper and hard-bound.
FRIEND:"Congrats! We definitely need to take you out for drinks! I heard binding and acid-free paper are ridiculously expensive. Is it?"
ME:"Yeah, it cost me $300. I ordered the two required copies to be filed at school, paid a microfilming/archiving fee of $70, and then ordered a hard copy for myself, and one for my parents/sister".
FRIEND: "But the school pays for binding/copying...at least for the copies that the school keeps, right?"
ME: "Are you kidding!?!? Hahaha, noooo. Do you seriously think that the school will pay for that??"
FRIEND: "You mean to say they don't even cover the two copies that Ph.D. grads are required to get hard-bound for the university to keep in their library/archives?""
ME: "Nope. Come on, this is UVA we're talking about.
FRIEND: (laughing)"True. Of course. Haha. Well, I guess it wouldn't be right for them to let you graduate without squeezing one more last drop of money out of you".
And so that chapter of my life closes as I get ready to take off for a couple weeks vacation out of town. When I get back at the end of August, hopefully my diploma will be ready to pick up at the registrar. And don't even ask me if the university frames it for you. They do not. But we are welcome to purchase a separate frame from the university bookstore (just as educational loan repayments begin, of course). I have heard before that, at 17 x 22 inches in size, UVA diplomas are the largest in the country. My hard-bound book-style dissertations will be hot off the press and ready sometime later this fall--I'm told it's roughly three months. Consistent with legends that say no one ever really looks at done dissertations, I am tempted to stick a crisp clean dollar bill into the two school copies. Then, after many years, I'll come back to UVA/Charlottesville, find my dissertation in the library or university archives, and shake it out to see if the dollar bill drops out of the pages.
In other news, I am staying on for the coming year in a research position at the medical school. I'm glad I didn't end up taking a job in North Carolina. In short, for now that this works out well b/c I'm still trying to wrap my head around the idea that my dad needs to to undergo a 2nd heart valve replacement at UVA very soon, as in....in the next couple of months.
This news, that it's so critical and urgent, is disorienting to me, and I can't help but feel slighly deceived at having been told, in 2003, that his bioprosthetic valve would "last for 10-15 years". We're only 7 years out and he already needs a new one. I never imagined dad would be a "repeat customer" for open-heart surgery.
More later...
