Thursday, August 21, 2008

Ahhh, chocolate dream

So last night I watched a bunch of episodes of Deadwood ('cause there's nothing like shocking violence and the use of phrases like "errant cocksucker" to cheer you up when you're dissertating) and then went to bed. I didn't want to leave to get any sleeping stuff, so I took a benadryl, remembering how groggy and sleepy they made me back in my serious allergies phase. And this morning? Still felt a little weird and groggy like the medicine was still in my system, but I was much more rested. If I was constantly waking up and tossing and turning last night, I don't remember it at all.

By the time I had some coffee in me I felt like a person again, and actually worked on that intro. The coffee place was packed so I went down round the corner and worked --- get this --- at the mall. Yes, I know. But I wanted not just a bench, but an actual table and chair arrangement, outside, where I could work without being interrupted. There is something a little off about writing a dissertation about Very Deep and Serious Things right in front of a Pottery Barn but I was too busy trying to focus on my intro to actually work that thought out.

The upshot of it all is, I wrote the thing!!!!! And then my laptop battery died and then I did a bunch of errands that I'd been getting behind on and then went to school, where I printed up the thing as well as full copies of that chapter for my other committee members. Now, this is against the express wishes of my advisor, who said she didn't want anyone else to see the chapters until she had signed off on them, but I am ignoring her in the hopes that this will get everyone's timelines coordinated nicely with my deadline. And as I've said before, I'm suspicious that my third reader has not read any of it. Which just means that if I unknowingly have anything totally wrong and offensive in my earlier chapters, she had the chance to
catch it and I'm going to assume that everything in them was fine.

And to celebrate, since it was about 2 when I put things in mailboxes, I went out and had disgustingly delicious food at In-N-Out. Ahh, yes, could I be any more obnoxiously Californian? Well, since I didn't carry a miniature dog in with me on one arm, I'd say I need more work on it. But the food was soo good, and so unhealthy --- including a chocolate milkshake --- and I'm just reveling in all the delicious unhealthiness still. Mmmm!

So, in short, my entire committee has a draft of my entire dissertation and we have three weeks left to get everything that might need to be ironed out, ironed out. I have the abstract and the acknowledgements to write and some weird formatting problems to fix (why does the diss keep repaginating itself randomly? Argh.) and then it's waiting for word from my peeps. I guess I should jump in and prep stuff for the market and send out my articles (ugh!) yet again, but I may just take the rest of the day off. Wouldn't want to put my back out pushing the rock up the final few feet.

11 comments:

k8 said...

Yay! That must feel soooo good to have that done.

Dr. Crazy said...

Woohoo! Huzzah! Hurrah! I hope you've go some liquor on hand with which to celebrate! I drink a toast in your honor!

Hilaire said...

Amazing - congrats!! That must feel soooo wonderful.

I'm very happy for you!

André Dias said...

Please don't finish it! I need my daily fix of your humorous commiseration. What the hell are you going to write about after your done?

Tree of Knowledge said...

yay!

azoresdog said...

impressive!

btw, i always thought that one of your more inspired posts was a few months back about how to tackle a large project by breaking it up into tiny, bite-size pieces because each of those is more managable and less daunting than the whole enchilada (i'm paraphrasing, of course, but you get the idea).

actually, i'm pretty sure you didn't use any food imagery in that post so that most likely means i'm feeling hungry. and should probaby get some work done myself.

hasta luego from spain,
S

medieval woman said...

Awesome! Take the rest of the day off - seriously....

Maude said...

yea!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! i'm so happy for you!!!!!!!!!!!!

by god, take the rest of the day off girl!!!!!!!!!! you deserve it!!!!

(can you tell i'm excited for you by my obnoxious use of exclamation points?)

Anonymous said...

congrats!!! yay and go you!!!

Dr. Curmudgeon said...

Congrats! And for that, just one chocolate milkshake? I admire the restraint...

Anonymous said...

I am torn between well-deserved congratulations and outright envy about your proximity to In-n-Out. Oh, how I miss the In-n-Out!!

Okay (wiping the drool from my chin): many cheers for your accomplishments.