Disheveled and Disarray

Spending lots of time in a dark environment staring at a computer or at your canine research assistant does things to you. Living in the virtual classroom, where you can't really see anyone from the neck down affects you. Conducting meetings with important individuals that will help decide the course of your life for the next few years while wearing your PJs changes you. You start to wonder whether or not people will notice if you've taken a shower via webcam. You wonder if the person on the other end of the phone line can tell you are horizontal on the living room couch while discussing fundamental next steps to your research program. You figure no one will notice you haven't changed your clothes all day while revising two manuscripts, writing your grant, and finishing your statistics final.

My usual working attire

Yes, this is what working on a graduate degree full time through a distance-based program may do to you. Gone are the days of picking out a spring dress as your prance off to work. Gone are the days of deciding whether or not you will wear your hair up or down. Gone are the days of looking your best as you talk to the higher-ups. Gone are the rituals of beauty and (dare I say) glamour. *sigh* As I'm writing this now, I am still wearing the sleeping shorts that I wore to bed last night. I did manage to change my t-shirt, though. And I have ventured outside to get the mail and take my research assistant for a little jaunt.

But, it doesn't have to be so! For the next few postings or so, I am going to try and reverse the isolation-induced-beauty-and-hygiene-killer known as grad school! A few tools of the trade, special products, and clothiers will help me along the way....Flip flops, bobby pins, and ratty PJs beware!