Did you know you could fly

It's the home stretch of the thesis stuff. I've got about 6 more book reviews or interviews of about 1-2 pages each, 3 dissertations to annotate from the abstract since I can't get ahold of the actual dissertation, and about 8 more 1 page book reviews to get from the library tomorrow.

Plus the three articles that I can't get. I may honestly have to take a day trip down to Emory on Friday if they don't come in by then. But none of them are particularly long. 10-20 pages each. I can knock em off in 2 hours if I can get ahold of them.

Now here's just hoping that I don't have to do too much revision, and I can soon turn my attention to the Keats paper due the 21st.

Just because I need to balance all the stuff that's going on with something positive I will say that I'm actually doing better than I expected on the thesis stuff. So far I've not only gotten to bed at my normal times without staying up late to finish the goals I'd set for myself, I'm actually *ahead* of schedule, and barring even more unforeseen circumstances might actually get all the writing part done by Sunday, leaving me Monday to get everything into final form so that what I turn in Tuesday will be a true final form draft, rather than something "in process" as I was expecting. Then I'll actually have a couple days off, while my advisor and second reader mark it up. After that I'll have the weekend to make the recommended changes so that it can be printed, signed off on, and turned in by 5pm Tuesday the 19th.

I'm beginning to pull out of my previous panic and have some confidence that it might actually get done.

Ok, so one of my goals for today was to read and annotate 4 articles. Instead I read and annotated 2 dissertations. Since the dissertations added up to probably more pages than the 4 articles would have, I'm considering it a success.

Here's hoping that the power, which was out when I went home for a break earlier, will be back on when I get home in a little bit, particularly because there are still a few things I want to get done tonight. Still, I'm thinking bed early tonight is a good idea.

So I got through the interview on Monday and the presentation on Thursday. Yesterday I picked up the car I'm going to drive down to Milledgeville tomorrow and read and critiqued my classmates' papers -- an assignment we were just given on Tuesday (as if I didn't have enough stuff to do this week). I spent time on Wednesday taking notes and making an outline for my presentation to GC&SU on Monday, which means today I have to turn those notes into a Power Point presentation and practice it.

I got back my thesis introduction on Wednesday as well, and while there are numerous small changes and corrections to make, she only suggested one sizeable rearrangement of the sections and didn't ask me to add or change anything substantial, which is very good.

I very much don't want to be here today, particularly since the person who normally comes to relieve me at 2 has a class that's supposed to last until 6. There's a chance she'll get out early, but in general I'm looking at a 10 hour shift with no break.

And I know I spend most of my time here complaining, but I am *so* burned out right now. I *desperately* need just a day or two when I don't have to worry about anything. Where I can sleep as late as I want and waste the day watching movies or playing computer games.

I am so looking forward to May. A whole month in which pretty much the only thing I'll need to worry about is showing up for work (where I can read novels or somesuch without worrying about schoolwork) and the leisurely beginnings of packing up my stuff since most of the jobs I'm applying for don't start until July or August (this is, of course, assuming I get one of them).

So yeah. This has been your weekly early-Saturday-morning-I-don't-want-to-be-here whinge. Hope you enjoyed it. Here, have some cheese.

Ok, so I survived the period of no internet access -- the internet just came back on a few minutes ago and I go home in 15 mins.

I wrote the biography and synopsis of Carter's career, the critical reception of The Bloody Chamber, and a few extra pages on Carter's use of fairy tales in general. The only thing I haven't written that needs to be included is the statement of purpose and scope and the justification of format. That should be pretty simple -- purpose is to provide a starting point for people studying The Bloody Chamber, scope is all critical articles, dissertations, interviews, and book reviews concerning The Bloody Chamber written since its publication in 1979, and format is chronological under categories (book reviews, interviews, etc.)

Basically I just have to elaborate on that and turn it into about a page.

Of course, I figure there will be tons of revision required, and I expect some "you need to take some of *this* out and elaborate more in *this* area" type comments that will require reasonable amounts of rewriting and new material. But basically as a first draft it's pretty much done.

I also wrote 3 annotations and read enough of 3 more articles to determine they didn't fit the scope and were thus rejected. So that's 6 off my list. Only about a hundred left, now. *sigh*

Stuff left to do today:

Finish the last couple sections of the first draft of my introduction. Compile works cited list.
Edit paper for Dr. Feldman and compile works consulted list.
Read Charlotte Smith.

The first two shouldn't take more than about half an hour each, if that. The last one depends on how much material is in our anthology, and I haven't really looked yet.

Tomorrow's job is to prepare my presentation for LSU. GC&SU wants me to come on the 23rd, although I asked if we could make it a little later, like the 25th. Considering I'm at LSU on the 21st and I have a presentation on the 22nd, heading out to GC&SU on the 23rd is going to make me not exactly my best for said interview. But now I wonder if they're going to ask for a presentation too? I understand that a presentation is pretty standard for these kinds of interviews, but I also thought they generally gave you more than a week's notice to prepare one and they haven't said anything about it yet.

Of course, I'm only starting to prepare my LSU presentation tomorrow, but we all know what a horrible procrastinator I am. Plus, I'm pretty confident of the material. It's just the formatting I'm not so sure about.

Oh, and all that stuff I have to do today? I'll start it *after* my nap.

I came across this in an interview I'm reading for my thesis. The interviewer is referring to Angela Carter's oftentimes contrived and highly stylistic manner of writing:

Interviewer: I think it's true that you do embrace opportunities for overwriting.
Carter: Embrace them? I would say that I half-suffocate them with the enthusiasm with which I wrap my arms and legs around them.

I can just hear the delicate snort and droll tone in which that line was delivered. See why I love this author so much? :)

Allow me to give you a run down of my month:

Today, March 1st, I turned in an abstract for a paper that still isn't clear in my head
Thursday, March 3, I have a phone interview w/ GS&CU
Thursday, March 3, I have a meeting w/ my prof to hopefully make my paper more clear
Saturday, March 5, I go to Atlanta for Shadesong's party :)
Monday March 14, I must turn in the 1st draft of my thesis introduction (10-15 pages)
Wednesday, March 16, my father is flying down to go with me to court. We'll meet to discuss plans
Thursday, March 17, I go to court against the landlord in the morning
Thursday, March 17, my paper is due (10 pages)
Sunday, March 20, I fly to Louisiana for an interview
Monday, March 21, I spend all day in interviews and fly home in the evening
Tuesday, March 22, I have a presentation on 3 yet to be selected critical articles in class
Thursday, March 31, I have an abstract for a second paper due, topic still unknown

Tori Amos concert is on Monday, April 4th.
The second paper, and my final thesis defense, are both due by Tuesday, April 19

Of course all this is in addition to my regular schedule of work and classes. Next week is Spring Break, which means no classes, although I'm still working just as much. It is really important that I somehow manage to write both my 1st paper and my thesis introduction by Monday the 14th, because I work Tuesday and Wednesday night, and I need time to prepare for the court case on Thursday.

I really have no idea how I'm going to survive this month.

I'm in a weird maybe-slightly-sick place today. My throat is tickly and sort of sore, and I'm coughing some. And my stomach seems to go through these queasy moments when it thinks it's going to be nauseated and then changes its mind. But mostly I've got a headache along with the slightly dizzy, head wrapped in cotton feeling that sometimes comes with a fever. It's like there's a pane of glass between me and the rest of the world -- a distancing feeling. Add to that a slight equilibrium problem and it's like I've had a drink or two, or taken one of my strong pain meds, although of course I've done neither. Good thing my job is pretty much sitting at this desk all day.

Of course this isn't making getting work done any easier, and I really *must* get moving on the annotations. Plus I have an abstract due on Friday for a paper due next month and I haven't even picked a topic, let alone done the research needed to write the abstract. At least my reading for Tuesday is done.

I keep thinking I have the whole rest of the semester to do this thesis thing, but in reality, the final version has to be submitted the first week in April. That's really only a little over a month away, and I've done only about 15% of the annotations and written none of the introduction, although I have the research for that done at least.

I really hope that whatever is going on with me today is not the beginning stages of that really nasty flu thing that's been going around. Several of my friends have had it and it doesn't sound like fun.

Ok, so I spent hours today at the library checking a bunch of other bibliographies and databases for more articles and things for my thesis. I also talked with Dr. Scott (the head of special collections, also my Bibliography professor) to ask if he would be my second reader. Honestly, I didn't think he'd say yes, he's so busy all the time, but surprised me by saying yes immediately. We talked a little about my topic and how far I've gotten and he seemed to feel I had everything under control. As second reader he won't be involved too much -- I'm just supposed to send him updates every few weeks on my progress and he'll let me know if he notices something I appear to be overlooking, but other than that he just reads it and shows up for the conference at the end to approve it. Still, I'm glad to be able to say that I officially have a second reader.

On Monday I'm going to need to get an override code to drop my thesis hours from 3 to 1 (I had 3 originally just to keep myself academically full time -- now with the independent study I only need 1) so I won't have to pay for the 2 extra credit hours that won't be counted toward my degree anyway. Then I have to pay another $350-odd for that extra credit hour I was short before.

Tomorrow my plan is to get the reading done for the Romantics class and set up an Excel file with all the stuff I've collected for my thesis that I can then automatically arrange based on status (found citation, in the library, waiting for ILL, have copy, read, annotated, etc) so I will have everything in one place and can see visually how far along I am at any point.

On a more personal note I am working hard to engage my willpower to not buy the second season of Buffy (I'm almost finished the first) until at least the Feb. 15 paycheck. Excess financial aid is to be kept in the savings account for *emergencies*. It is NOT part of the entertainment budget. Must remember this. Must remember this.