crunch time

Where in the heck did most of April go? Jeez. A few weeks gone in a flash, and now it’s the end of the semester, and even if I’m not presently teaching or taking classes, I’m feeling that all-too-familiar end of semester crunch feeling. The feeling of too much to do– too many different things [...]

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a little less geekiness then last time…

It’s about time I blogged, and with a little less of the geekitude that was in my last post about writing.
I have a job interview today. No, not for a faculty job, but for a new job on campus. I’ve had the same administrative job for nearly 5 years. It’s paid the bills– tuition and [...]

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writing mindfully (instead of with fear and dread)

I’m reading a book on writing. Actually, I’ve already read it twice. It might be one of the singularly best books of advice on academia I’ve ever found. I just can’t say enough about it.
And I’ve read a bunch of books on academia and writing. That’s what I do when I don’t know about something– [...]

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… and sometimes I just go looking for a way to stress about the job market…

Let me first say this: I’ve turned in 98% of my applications. I’m not super worried– maybe it’s denial– but I’m not loosing sleep. I’m just digging in and focusing as much as I can on my dissertation. Writing has become a blessing/distraction/refuge. All I want to do is write. Even when it is hard. [...]

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so where the heck have I been?

I’ve been here:

Yeah, it looks sort of drab. I’ve had to work up in the stacks because they’ve started construction on the ceiling in my favorite part of the library. Even though it is dark and I imagine the desks haven’t been cleaned since the 70s, I love it. I sort of adore libraries.
Here’s my [...]

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Worlds of Work

I’m finally unwound enough from the conference this past weekend to be able to write about it. It was fun, exhausting, exciting and thoroughly draining all at once. It was truly what the conference title said it would be– worlds of work.
For a change, I finished the prep work right on track, and for the [...]

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give me a break

Now they want to set a “time horizon” for Iraq instead of a “timeline” or “deadline”?? I know I don’t talk politics much here, but this “time horizon” is too ridiculous to ignore.
They’re kidding, right? I mean, I’m all for the power of language, but does the Bush Crime Admin think we’re stupid? Really, really [...]

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finally, I seem to be growing up a little.

I think others who’ve been in grad school forever will understand this. There is something about getting a PhD that puts you (sometimes nearly a decade) behind other friends your age in terms of getting out into the “real world.” You know, the “real world” where you work full time, make more than $3/hour, drive [...]

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Things I love about the internets: Part 2

While I’ve had a wonderful past week (going to Chicago, watching great movies, hanging out with Jo on her birthday) underneath all the fun some serious grumpiness is bubbling to the surface. I’m back to feeling like all I ever accomplish is at my day job (i.e. not my dissertation) and I’m feeling slightly swamped [...]

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happy happy joy joy!

You remember that from Ren and Stimpy, right?
So thanks to the online world of journal publishing, my first publication surprised me by coming out today! It’s on the journal’s website as an “online first” article, and I downloaded the pdf and it even looks like a publication. In a real journal. That people will read. [...]

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introducing my official job market mascot…

I’m going on the job market this year, so I’ve been busy preparing my CV and having lots of conversations with my advisor and others about what kind of job I want, what to put and not put on my CV, what kinds of things to talk about (and not talk about) at interviews and [...]

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scheduling: round 2

After all the time and thought I put into figuring out an intricate summer work and writing schedule, I’m going back to my old (semester) schedule of working from 9-2 Monday-Thursday and writing after 2 every day in the library. My original plans weren’t working for a couple reasons– going to the Y early in [...]

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a change of plans

I really tried going to the Y early in the morning this week. And although the thought of going to the gym early to work out before the day begins makes so much sense, it just isn’t going to happen for me.
This morning I got up at 6:45am and made coffee, and somehow I got [...]

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the (not so) hidden costs of getting a PhD

There was a lot I didn’t know about getting a PhD and academia in general when I started grad school back in 2002. A lot. I didn’t know what a peer reviewed journal was, I didn’t know people published articles in said journals, I didn’t know that academic conferences even existed, and I had no [...]

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burying my head in the sand

As illustrated by this IM conversation between my sister and I (she=pink, me=green), I’ve been pretty successful at altogether ignoring the presidential election.
Are you nervous for today?
No not really
b/c two people already read my draft and thought it was good
Huh?
for the primaries?
LOL
I thought you meant writing group
No lol
This cartoon describes exactly where I’m at with [...]

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remembering the little things

Sometimes it helps to think of the big picture and sometimes it helps to focus on the small details. It’s hard to know when to do what. Sometimes thinking of the big picture (i.e. job market) means waking up at 4am for three mornings in a row worrying in a ridiculous way about how to [...]

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aggravated

Why am I aggravated? For so many reasons… my upcoming article draft deadline and how difficult writing continues to be, the fact it is nearly the End Of The Semester, the general lack of enough hours in the day, impending job market tasks, the fact that that my diss is completely fascinating to all who [...]

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comfortable

Could it be that after all the time and energy I’ve spent trying to finish grad school, and get back to the east coast, that in going through the motions of “getting there,” I’ve managed to make myself (too) comfortable here?
Someone once noted that I’m definitely a “nester.” I think that’s true. I love to [...]

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Maybe multitasking isn’t such a great skill afterall

Yikes, is it really April? Am I really turning 31 tomorrow? Did I really plan to have 2 dissertation chapters written by the end of the semester? Am I really going on the job market this fall?
Suddenly after *trying* so hard to be done with grad school for so long, I wouldn’t mind if it [...]

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the only thing constant is change

Well, I’ve come to a decision that might surprise readers as I haven’t talked much about the process of making it here. I’ve never been sure if academia was right for me– and I’ve always struggled to fit both culturally and intellectually. I’m much more working class, and would just be much more comfortable making [...]

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strange dreams

The last few nights I’ve had some very vivid dreams. Very vivid, and very odd. They’re probably stress dreams, and given the most recent Ms. Mentor column, they’re pretty common.
In one, I was at a wedding. It was here in town, on the east side, and it might have been the wedding of two women [...]

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a watershed book recommendation

This semester in grad school has been very different in tone for a couple reasons. First, I’m not spending entire weekends “binge” writing. Second, I’m not feeling guilty about taking evenings off here and there and relaxing with dinner and a movie.
So why this huge change?
I bought this book at the beginning of the semester. [...]

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tagged

Since I got to meet and hang out with Wicked Anomie in Las Vegas last weekend, I figured I would consider myself tagged on this meme.
The game: open the nearest book to page 123 and reproduce the 6-8th sentence.
Well, the nearest book to me is the one I’ve been reading today– “Qualitative Data Analysis With [...]

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wisdom of the sages

I love advice. I adore it, I collect it. I try to listen to, and remember all the sage advise of those older/more experienced than I am. Even when most of the advice I hear, I might not “get” until much later, I still try to collect as much as I can.
So I was thrilled [...]

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milestones

Today I reached 2 milestones in my journey to a PhD:

I defended my proposal. It wasn’t really a defense, though. It was more like a meeting– a discussion about my dissertation and what I need to do and think about going forward. It was amazingly helpful, and really not scary at all. They had some [...]

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telling the butterflies to fly in formation

I used to do children’s theatre when I was a kid. It was a particularly hippie kinds of children’s theatre; we sang a lot of sixties songs, did a lot of deep breathing and group chanting, and sang a lot about the light and the sun and stuff (hey, I told you it was very [...]

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jinxing myself

So I guess with all my revelry about accomplishments in the last post, I might have jinxed myself out of getting any kind of work done this weekend.
I had two tiny (well, relatively tiny) things I wanted to do and I finished neither of them. Instead, I watched movies, cleaned out the hall closet, [...]

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tis the season

Usually at this point in the semester I’m freaking out. For so many years the beginning of December has been about the point where I kick into some freakish high gear, and start planning every hour of the day to get the seminar papers that I need to finish (and most likely haven’t worked on [...]

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Me, six years later

Yesterday I had coffee with a first year graduate student. She, like me my first year, has tons on her plate– teaching, classes, research, hourly work etc. Not to mention just the major adjustment to grad school. She’s really hanging in there, but had that frantic deer-in-the-headlights look that I’m sure I had my first [...]

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Watershed, forthcoming

I have some good news! It seems I’ve moved suddenly from the world of unpublished grad student, to published author! This whole shift is still kind of sinking in.
An article I wrote from my master’s thesis is being published in a special issue of a pretty decent journal! I got the email the other day [...]

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