How does time expand?

I was writing an email to a friend today, a friend who was lamenting the fact that her time seems to get filled and she's not working a regular 9 to 5 "job." I can soooo relate. It's like the old goldfish-in-the-bathtub adage: our activities will expand to fill the time (container) we have to hold them. It works the same way for my purse, I've noticed. I typically have found myself with a huge bag and hardly any stuff in it and then, before you know it, I've got a full-blown suitcase worth of stuff in it!

But what rubs me raw is when people think that being a Grad Student isn't "enough." Do you have a job, they ask? Well, no, not in the strict sense of "I work for blah blah blah and I do blah for them."

But am I a full-time mother -- not just in name but in action? YES!

Do I put all of what I have into my relationship with my fiance? YES!

Do I put all my academic prowess to work when I'm at school and/or when I'm working on schoolwork? YES!

(Really, at this point, I'm waiting for "Flo" from the Progressive commercial to come running at me with a pricing gun)...  But I digress. My Lasik Surgery Doctor, whom I saw today for a 9-month follow up appointment and learned that my vision is 20/15 *breathing on fingernails and rubbing them on chest* pontificated on the Grad School subject with me for a bit. We both wonder why people think that Grad School is just a cool thing you say -- and then, poof, someone hands us a degree. It's a LOT of hard work. And well worth it. Perhaps I shall focus on the gratitude I have for being here once more, because, that is what it's really about. Gratitude. And not caring too much what other people think.