three.

I just got out of the most productive and best thesis meeting with Dr. E that I have ever had. I wrote an introduction & an outline last night (at about 11 or so, so I was pretty sure the quality was low) & sent it off to her. We spent an hour retooling everything. She told me what to add & where, how to move things around in the outline, the kinds of transitions that were necessary, what sort of order I should use given that it's a conference talk & not just a submitted paper, & where I could add snarky historical comments. I felt ridiculously knowledgable about my topic (something I haven't felt since...well, since ever) & also like it was something that I was perfectly able to do. I am not nervous about giving it as a presentation, either, & although the Q & A part scares me since people will be able to ask about parts I won't have read much on, Dr. E said that if some grandstanding professor gets awful it is her job to stand up & metaphorically punch them in the nose for picking on an undergraduate.
...the downside is that I have to give her a pretty solid draft by Friday. That would be okay, except that I also have to have a fairly solid draft of my ten page English paper by Wednesday. Oh, the hallowed halls of acadaemia...