Closet outing

At long last I made the jump. Not only did I write that email to my HR manager to demand four months of freedom in Summer - I also came out of the closet and told the Policy-Oriented, Unconsciously Neoliberal, Technocratic-Elitogarchy Loving, We're-Working-For-The-Environment (let's order sushi and leave more lights on and print some more documents we'll never read) People at work about the way I planned to use this freedom. I hesitated at first but decided there was no point hiding anyway. I did try to reframe my topic in a way that appeared less radical anarchist, I suppose. Coward that I am.
I wrote something like:

Dear [insert name of bitchy-doll personel manager],

I'll start writing my final thesis in October. My topic will probably be the transformative potential of implemented political "Utopias" (although I will only finalise my project design in April). In order to write this, I would like to collect material and data, especially field observations and interviews in and around various solidary, environmentally-friendly (alternative) societies, probably in Germany and France.

etc etc.

This email went to HR Manager and the two researchers I work for, who are Nice People but not quite the Utopia type. It will eventually be given to my boss who has the final word. (Obviously he can't refuse, because otherwise I quit.)
Let's just look at this first attempt to indirectly tell my boss that I basically despise the work he's been so kind and generous to create for me. It's mild, it's soft, and it has words like "implemented" and "environmentally-friendly". Yes, it does have Utopia, but then in inverted comas! Inverted comas! and "alternative" in brackets! I didn't even mention communes. It's a timid first attempt. I can predict that Boss will call me in for a Personal Development Interview soon, something he's been wanting to do for a while already, to prode me around and figure out once and for all whether he can hope to have me start there as a researcher eventually.