Drama Mama is officially leaving the building. This is my last post for Mama PhD. Just so you know it’s not because I am getting “outed” at my university as someone concerned with issues of parenthood and academia (see last week’s post) or because I got my ego crushed a few months ago (see my post on sodium laurel sulfate) or because this doesn’t count as scholarship (although I still might consider Mama PhD the musical). I am passing the baton because I am acknowledging although it is nice to know there is someone out there who is sharing your trials and tribulations, perhaps it’s time to hear from someone who can give more perspective. It’s purely selfish of course. I need to make sense of this circus and I want to hear more from the other smart women of Mama PhD. It’s been wonderful getting to share and finding this amazing community of colleagues who share my world. But, as they say in preschool – now it’s someone else’s turn. I am fully confident you are going to love Rosemarie’s posts. She shared with me her plans to write on mammograms and wage differences and somehow hearing about these plans made the posts I had planned on the mysteries of “how goldfish crackers always seem to end up smashed at the bottom of your purse” seem – well, a little like spending 5 minutes on Roe vs. Wade while spending 20 minutes on Joe the Plummer. Oh – but I know I know…you are going to miss me. You’ll miss the occasional references to toddlers peeing on skirts, conversations about “girl parts” and comparisons of higher education to pre-k education. Somehow you’ll manage. But if someday you feel like you are the only one pumping breast milk in a maintenance closet when the head of your department walks in - Just know that someone somewhere knows your pain. Hang tough sisters. (and brothers). In the words of GI Joe – knowing is half the battle. Welcome Rosemarie!