Tonight was a really good night for my graduate school career.

I finally won my advisor over on my thesis idea. This development is, quite frankly, a small miracle.

I’m not sure if she remembers the conversation we had last summer wherein she shot my research interest down out of the sky like a sick pheasant. In fact, I think she must not because tonight she acted like it was the most natural thing in the world to love that topic. “Well, after all,” she smiled, “you SHOULD be writing about what you’re interested in.”

Regardless, I was so psyched about this thrilling development, that I came home in kind of a frenzy.

Dan, being a good husband, pretended to be really happy for me, and then, clearly thinking ahead to the long-range implications of my academic zeal, which could last beyond the completion of my master's degree, tactfully mentioned that he thought you “got paid to do your Ph.D.”