For the past 8 days I have, at various times, gotten sunburned, dug my feet deeply into the sand, lain on the beach for way longer than is healthy, gotten a zero-gravity pedicure (zero-gravity is the only way to go when getting a pedicure), gone on power walks with my mom along the shore, played tennis, talked with my sister and brother-in-law (whom I hadn’t seen since they got in their car at their wedding reception, driving off into their mutual futures), gone paddling in a 6-person canoe and stared into incredibly clear ocean water…in other words, I have been in paradise. Hawaii. A little place plopped into the middle of the pacific far from scary words like DISSERTATION DEADLINE, WORKING BIBLIOGRAPHY and LIBRARY CATALOGUE.