Notions of which I need to disabuse myself:

• Vacations are for relaxing. In truth, vacations are for accumulating large amounts of laundry (I'm seeming a bit obsessed here, hmmm, must think about the implications), causing an infant's already-complicated biological clock to veer completely off-kilter, and reading no more than 20 pages of a book you've been saving "for vacation."

• Because your advisors aren't emailing you regarding the tables for a paper, they are also not emailing each other about the same tables. Rather, in all likelihood, they will decide (without your input) that the tables should include information that you cannot calculate without significant coding work and re-running several days worth of simulations. This will not seem to be incompatible with sending the paper off three days later.

• If one of your advisors sends an email that say, simply, "Are you around? Can you stop by to chat for a minute?" it might be good news or, simply, a chat. Perhaps about the exciting fact that your college's basketball team is in the Sweet 16, or about your recent vacation. No, there will be no "chatting," there will be long discussions about where exactly your graduate career is going and the fact that yes, you do in fact have to keep all three advisors instead of paring down to a manageable two, or God forbid, one. Like a normal student.