How far along are you?

Grad students get really fucking sick and tired of being asking the dreaded question:"So, are you close to graduating yet?"Or any permutation thereof, really:"When are you defending?" "Aren't you a post-doc now?" "You're still here?"What follows is a (sort of) funny story about what happened to me a few months ago.----------I was in an elevator with my backpack on, leaning on the the wall trying to stretch my back and catch my breath from an intense bike-ride to work, hence a little poking-out belly (now, I could stand to lose a few pounds, but only a few really). Some maintenance guy gets on the elevator and decides to initiate some friendly conversation. He asks me, "So, how far along are you?"I think to myself, "Shit! Now even the maintenance guys are asking when I'm damn well going to finish this fucking thesis!!!! I have been here for WAAAAY too long!"Then I realized he had no fucking way of knowing that I was a grad student (as opposed to post-doc, not that I would expect the maintenance guys to know the difference)...then it dawned on me what he really meant. My response:"I'm NOT! Fuck you very much for asking!"He tried to back-peddle "Oh! But I thought you were--. I mean, I'm sorry, I just...."Yeah, I gathered.Jerk! I know he was trying to be nice, and if I were actually pregnant and so much so that I was very obviously showing I probably wouldn't have minded. But dude, unless it is so obvious that there could be no other possible explanation (i.e., the pregnant waddle plus stretchy waist-band maternity clothes, or if you want to be really sure active labor/contractions with water already broken) - don't go there! And how many pregnant ladies show up to work all hot and sweaty wearing a backpack and bike helmet anyway*?I spent the rest of the day being pissed that I was not further along (on the thesis, that is) and being generally cranky about the fact that I don't have enough time in my day to exercise as much as I should. Grad school can be the pits sometimes.*If any of you ladies actually do/did, you are a better woman than I!

Labels: How