As of yesterday, it is September, and that means my latest ring power experiment has failed: my wedding ring has not granted me any Calendar-Control powers. Wouldn’t it be nice if I could make it August forever? Unfortunately I can’t, and I apologize to all of the students out there.

Summer was great (and technically still is, I guess), but I’m actually looking forward to fall. I like cooler weather, and wearing jeans and hoodies, and wind, and falling leaves. Larissa is a big fan of autumn, too. If we hadn’t gotten married in April, we probably would’ve gotten married in October. But here we are, married for just over four months, and things couldn’t be better!

I don’t know if I’ll discover my ring powers in the next four months, or even the next eight. It would be nice to know what kind of superhero I’m going to be by Christmas, so I can gear my present requests towards that, but maybe it’s going to take a year or more to manifest. Not much I can do about it, I guess.

Things are moving along with my thesis. I have my second draft out awaiting feedback from another committee member; my supervisor has approved my revisions already. After that, it’s a matter of finding another committee member from an outside faculty (probably Political Science), and scheduling a defense date. Then the stress begins. Ah, I can handle it. Just a panel of career academics pointing out every single little flaw in my data collection, analysis, and presentation. No biggie.

Maybe the stress will reveal a magical public speaking or confidence-related power. I’d take that.