Ph Do What!?

I usually try to have some sort of story or witticism to open these posts.  It's a rhetorical technique that carries over from my training as a public speaker.  The more I tried to come up with one to open this post, the less and less appropriate it seemed.  I promised you that this blog would be an inside look at the lived experience of grad school, and right now there is nothing witty about it, not even from my usual go of bleak, macabre, or self deprecating humor.  Right now, we are in the middle of a pandemic, and any use of humor would just be me deflecting.  Life is strange for everyone right now.  On the whole, I'm quite lucky.  My university determined that everyone working at the level of graduate assistant or higher would continue to be paid.  I'm financially stable, and able to pay my rent and other bills.  For that I am inexpressibly grateful.  Not everyone is so fortunate.  I have friends at other universities who are...