A year ago today, I submitted my doctoral dissertation to my committee: 315 pages, 10 chapters, 73,009 words, 376 total citations (202 of which in the literature review).  It was the culmination of almost 5 years of research, over two months of writing, and the entire Buffy the Vampire series in reruns. It seems fitting that the last two months of this year I have been equally busy writing a handful of grants, though without the help of old TV scifi dramas.