n my desk right now you will espy a tube of hand cream. In fact you will find one or two on my desk at any given point in time now that snow is falling and the humidity in my apartment has dropped to nil. This is the first time I have done any long, sustained writing in this apartment during the winter – and by that I mean hours a day for days and months on end now – and I had no idea just how painful it could be.
I may not be a surgeon but I do take care of my hands and I certainly enjoy the occasional manicure, but this is just painful and insane. The hand cream is helping, but my delicate skin around my joints is still red and sore from the typing. Yesterday I had to make a special trip out for more hand cream as I killed off a tube the night before. While out I even picked up those rubber gloves for dish-washing to further decrease hand skin irritation – when did I turn into my mother???
ow things seem to be falling back into place as I am home and getting ready for the start of the term. Even though I slept little last night I still managed to drag my ass out of bed at 5:10am and bike to the gym in the frigging freezing weather. It was nice to get in a good workout and see my little old guys.
The workout this morning helped get me back into writing. Today has been super productive with some quality breaks in between sections. I feel a bit guilty for my DVD indulgences between sections of the article, but not guilty enough to stop…. Still I hope to have this article done on Sunday. The editing will take a bit of time, but I just want the whole thing written. Presently it stands at almost 40 pages, and I have probably another 10 to 15 pages to go. It is like having nearly written a chapter of the dissertation. Goodness I wish this was a chapter of the dissertation as I would be that much closer to done.
ore baby steps were taken today as I went into the office. I had this grand notion of going in and getting much writing work done because there would be no one around. HA! There were people everywhere!
Instead of writing at the office I finished my syllabus for next quarter, printed it off, went to the library to drop off and pick up books, and came home. I really do enjoy working in the office when no one is around and the lights are all off. I guess I will have to wait for the weekend for those conditions, but then again, as it is the weekend before classes start I suspect it might be a bit busy in there….
oly snow batman! Okay, actually, given where I come from this accumulation is really nothing, but it was quite exciting to be driving around in it last night. Arriving back in town I decided I needed to get a bunch of stuff done right then so that I can take full advantage of this last week and get work done. For some reason everything had to be done last night between the hours of 5pm and 9pm!! This meant having one tire repaired – nail pulled, hole patched; taking off the snow tires and putting the regular tires back on my car (silly thing to do in a snow storm, but the snows weren’t mine); attempt to exchange two gifts (failed); pick up my HUGE gift; and grocery shop.
Everything got done, but I don’t recommend trying to move the large and fragile present up snowy stairs and into one’s house alone. I also don’t recommend descending upon Whole Foods 15 minutes before they close without a shopping list to attempt to restock a very, very empty fridge for you will come home with random ass things and not nearly enough. Oh well, at least there is something in the fridge.
Last night was much like my day before I left for the holiday trip – the need to do it all right then! Pack; clean; go to BMV to title, register, and plate car; put snow tires on the car; and get on the road all before noon (HA!).
Now the house is (oddly) stocked and the car is parked and needs not to be driven for many, many days, so back to writing I should be…. I tried. I really tried to get back to my normal routine on this Monday. I did not wake at 5:15, but I was out of bed by 6:20. I did not make it to the gym this morning as I was too much of a wimp. I did, however, start my day and eat a good breakfast by 7am. I was all set to make the bed and shower and get to writing when my exhaustion sent me back to bed to sleep. Oh sleep! Glorious sleep! I had a lot of trouble falling asleep last night, so it was no surprise that 5:15am did not happen. I reasoned with myself for a noon start time today on the writing, maybe an afternoon trip to the office and the gym. Baby steps. It is all about baby steps this week.
For holiday I received one of the coolest presents ever. So, as both the website and the insert to the present tell me, each year since 1988, art collector, software entrepreneur, and MoMA trustee Peter Norton has commissioned an art edition to celebrate the Christmas season and holidays.
The objects were created by artists represented in the Nortons’ own collection, and sent as gifts to personal friends and members of the art community. The art objects are designed to be interactive and playful, and to foster engagement with the world of contemporary art.
Norton donated his remaining stash of the art objects to MoMA in 2009, and the proceeds from the sale of the objects will be donated to P.S. 1. One of said art objects (no I am not telling you which one!) was obtained for me by a family member, and I am so excited to have it because it is so interesting and also because it represents an interesting piece of modern art history.
If I had the spare $6200 laying around (okay, it would be $5580 because if I had that kind of cash around then I it would be silly not to be a member of MoMA to get the discount) I would totally buy the whole set of 21.
inally! The end is in sight! I have one more sub-section to write for the prospectus today and then I shall be sending this first complete full draft of it off to my advisor. While I did not meet my initial deadline for this prospectus, I am meeting today’s — and it feels good!
ecognizing the fact that break is now upon us, please understand that posting will be a bit spotty between now and the start of the winter quarter. I hope to use this time productively in terms of my writing, so there may be days of long posts in which I bitch about all that is going on; other days writing may be so bad that I am hiding on the couch watching episodes of Bones — we shall see.
Its a good thing I am not an asshole and that I am not a tenured professor at some R1 willing to take advantage of my eager to please grad students… but if I were I seriously might consider making my research assistant bring me the books I want which have arrived at the library. I would really like to read one of them right now before napping, and oh how awesome it would be to call someone and say “bring me my books!”
It really is too cold outside to justify a walk or bike ride to the library for just one book – especially as it is a pleasure-reading-book and not a dissertation-related-book
eing exhausted by 10am was not how I thought this day would go. For some reason I awoke insanely early today – 4am-ish, and as I was unable to get back to sleep I fixed myself breakfast and began on today’s writing. It has been a productive morning so far, but a nap is mighty tempting at this point.
I’ve completely rewritten the introduction to the dissertation. It articulates a really strong framework, so I hope that my committee members find it to their liking. The old introduction is now being converted into a literature review. Yes, this seems a bit half assed, but everything I wrote in the previous intro is essential information, and I don’t know where else I would put it. I have two more things to add to the literature review section and then it will be done. I hope to knock that off by the end of the day. Perhaps I will venture into the theories and methods section afterwards. That would be nice.
Amelia wonders, “is it a problem that I don’t yet have a title for my dissertation???”