catch 22 and all

    I find myself in a bit of a quandry lately, brought even more to mind with an email I received yesterday morning.     I am 11 hours shy of fulfilling my degree plan, and scheduled to take 12 hours in the fall semester which will complete my double major and minor hours. While the courses won't be terribly difficult, they are upper level courses, and will require a large time commitment. (Translation: read books, write papers,read books, write papers, read books, write papers.)     At the same time, my honors thesis will be due about mid-semester. I submitted approval papers for my study prior to leaving for Mexico and still have not received any further information. So, I have lost the opportunity to use the summer students for my project (which requires at least five weeks of participation).     Now, all this could be resolved nicely, if I pushed graduation til May... and the best possible way to do this would be to get hired into a full-time position at the university. [The reason why not just any full-time job would be as good a solution is the benefits available as a university employee.] While I was in Mexico, I checked the current job listing, and amazingly, there was an opening (a good one) at the library. Perfect. I applied, and also emailed my former supervisor to check on the situation. Then, my son let me know that I had been called for an interview the following Monday. Oops. Calls were made, messages left emails sent and received, but the short of it is that the person doing the hiring wanted to do so by the 21st, and I didn't return until the 26th.     So, once back in MS, I checked the listings again and found another position annouced for in the Honors College office -- unfortunately, the above mentioned email informed me that I am ineligible because I am enrolled the Honors College.     Now here's what keeps going round in my head: one of the primary reasons for considering a full-time job is to extend the time available for me to complete my thesis as a student of the Honors College. If I dropped out of Honors College, thereby being eligible to apply for the job, I would no longer need to extend the time to complete a thesis.     Now the weird part is that the library job is still in the listings. Yes, I will go make myself look foolish tomorrow morning by asking about it. Alert! Knitting content follows!     While in Mexico, I finished LB's Open-Mesh Market Bag -- I only wish I had a photograph of how it looked full of (first) all the fragile items I packed in it to carry onto the airplane, and (second) all the things Continental made me take out of my suitcase because it was over 50 pounds but then allowed me to carry onto the airplane. I swear, if it had been red instead of yellow, all the little kids would have thought I had Santa's pack!     A couple days ago, I finally cast-on for the Berroco Suede Knitting Tote (materials for which I carried all the way to Mexico and back, along with supplies for about four pairs of socks -- what was I thinking??) At 210 stitches per round, I'm going pretty slowly. It would be faster if I had size 8 circulars.... think I'll go check eBay. LC