Just a small bump in the road

One rite of passage for the graduate student is setting up the Thesis Committee meeting. The meeting itself isn't such a big deal in most aspects, but it's the journey getting there that is the uphill climb. Right now I'm trying to set up the ideal time for getting my five faculty committee members in the same room. This has not been easy as yet. It's been a week since I sent out the first notice, and we still haven't settled on a date. I'm pretty sure the faculty is readily accessible (what do they do besides sit in their offices and surf the web?), and they conspire together to make the graduate student sweat just a little bit:

Barb: Okay, did everyone get Mike's email about the next committee meeting? Good. Okay, what's the plan?

Jackie: Let's do the usual. I'll tell him I'm away next week. I'm available the week after, but after the second week of March I'm busy until the end of May.

Wellington: I'll tell him that I'm available on Tuesdays and Thursdays after 2pm, on Fridays before noon.

Cyrus: That sounds good. In my first email, I can make it on Mondays and Wednesdays before 1:30, on Thursdays after 4pm if there's a full moon the night before. Then I'll send him a second email and tell him that I forgot that I'm taking a sabbatical until August.

Greg (waking up): I'll just forget to reply to him, how's that? Are we done here? I'm hungry.

Actually, I'm quite fond of the people on my committee - it's just taking a little long to get this set up...