Hana's Next Book

My friend Hana is planning a new book. She is currently working on one that features her own illustrations, as well as colourful stickers she has artistically arranged on the large cream-coloured pages. The new book, which I'm sure will be illustrated as well, will list all of the things she gets to do when she turns six. She only turned five a week or so ago. According to Alisa, Hana's mom, the book was actually supposed to be about all of the things Hana would be able/allowed to do once she turned five. But alas, that deadline has come and gone, hence the need for a new book and a new list of things. Actually the new book should be more interesting anyway, because everyone knows that six is much more of a milestone than five.

In any case, Hana's new book got me to thinking: What are some things that I can't do now that I will be allowed to do when I finish my Ph.D.? Okay, aside from get a job and hence not feel guilty about every euro that leaves my pocket, the most important thing the completion of the Ph.D. will allow me to do is get a dog. Those of you who've spent any time with me in the last few weeks know that this is becoming an obsession. Perhaps it's being in Berlin, which must be the dog (poop) capital of Germany. But I don't think so. For the past few years I've been telling myself that when I finish the Ph.D. and finally settle down somewhere, I can get a dog. Well finishing the Ph.D. once seemed about as remote as scaling Everest, but not any longer. There's light at the end of that bloody tunnel, Hallelujah!!

So now I can displace any anxiety I may be feeling about whether I'll find a job or if the past few years have been a colossal waste of time and money, onto more realistic concerns, such as whether or not it's fair to my future dog to raise him in an urban environment.

Oh well, I wonder what Hana will do when she's six.


In Memory of Zulu