Tomorrow: The Big Easy

Just spent days writing, and more-or-less sick of it. Actually, on this note, I know I gripe a lot. "I hate writing!" "Writing is such a dreary chore." "Wish this manuscript was at the bottom of the sea!", and worse, I'm sure. The truth is, although I'm always annoyed and generally cranky while I'm writing, I enjoy the end product. I like it when I can see something and I know that it is good ... and I like it even more when I remember how it came about that way! Also, the process itself is tedious, but I'm starting to enjoy the "current of creativity" that it sends me into. Writing involves so much fact-finding and so much thought-collection that it helps me formulate goals for the future and enhances my understanding in a completely unique manner. So, yes, I 'hate' writing ... but I love it too!

Anyway, I've had enough of it already, so I should just say what I came here to say, and then STOP typing!! Fi and I are on our way out to New Orleans, Louisiana, tomorrow. I've been quite busy, and feel very 'wedged' into Chicago at the moment, so I am really looking forward to it. Besides, I have a bit of a cold, so it will help to take a breather! I'll be back on Monday, at the start of a brand new year. Hopefully it will be the year that awards me my PhD!

Plots and Plans

"What is this life, if full of care

We have no time to stand and stare."

As a mark of how much this applies to me, I will draw your attention to the fact that I haven't given a citation to the poem! I know these are the first few lines of Leisure, but I cannot remember who wrote it. I do know that, for some reason, I think of my grandfather (maternal) every time I say these lines. Perhaps he liked them!

Well, I just wanted to mark a placeholder here. I am (finally) actively working on my Prelim ... in the hope that the Final will follow soon after. (According to my advisor, the only major activities left to do between Prelim and Final ought to be writing and applying for jobs! So, I'm pretty much there.) The Committee's all set, the document is in progress (and pretty far along), the work is more-or-less done, the date is all but set, and fingers are being crossed for me. I don't have exact timelines here but I do know I'm headed out for a tiny New Year's weekend vacation to New Orleans between now and the exam. So, you can uncross your fingers for now. I'm hoping that what I have done is sufficient to go onward to the Final exam ... but we'll know that in January. So keep 'em crossed again through the second week of January. I am looking at a mid-2011 graduation, if Murphy decides to hold his peace!