'Twas a Full Day

I came home exhausted, which meant a party pizza and oreos dipped in leftover coffee for dinner (I did not dip pizza in coffee) and a mini Bones marathon (I'm in season 3; I've only watched one episode tonight, but plan to watch more).

This morning, I got up, rode the exercise bike for 30 minutes (while reading The Manual of Detection), ate oatmeal and drank coffee, took a shower, had a dissertation breakthrough while lying on the bed, wrote of said breakthrough in a notebook, got dressed, went to school, prepped, taught 2 classes, and did more prep. I think I had a full day and earned my oreos.

I'm not too worried about my diss bar over there that isn't moving. I have to work more with how the chapters are connected before I can revise them. A friend/colleague told me that a diss can be separate articles--that's what someone in our department did. But then I'd already be done. There would be no diss to write. That doesn't seem right and I know my committee wants something more book-like. So do I. So I'm not worried because I'm having big ideas. I think I figured out something really good, and it seems really BIG to me. So I want to play with it.

I do have to loosen up though abut this whole diss thing. I think I got caught up in "should"s and "supposed to"s and made myself nervous. I have to write this my way. My committee wanted my prospectus to be more sure, to make stronger claims, but I couldn't do that, especially since my chair steered me more toward a questions format. So I think I psyched myself out--I was doing it wrong. But I know better now and can channel Sinatra to keep reminding me (but without the allusions to death). I'm not ready to tell my committee yet because I think I should be able to back up what I'm saying more--talk through the connections more. I'll talk to my chair soon. I gave myself a mid-October deadline to meet with her, draft or no draft.

Yarrr and shiver me timbers. This be a belated Talk Like a Pirate Day greeting. Arrggg and avast. Where's me rum?