Saturday 22 April 2006

Holy Cow! A Post, A Post! A Veritable Post!

Hey kiddies,

So, I do live after all. Thought I should get a post out, even a quick one, before I hit the year marker!

Second semester of my first grad year is almost over...I just have a couple more papers to write. They should, technically, be done all ready, but I received a couple of extensions. Bad, bad student! It's been a weird term, and I'll be glad when it's finally over! Then I will taste the sweet elixir of sleep again!

Sleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeep...sleeeeeeeeeeeeep...

What's that computer? You want me to sleep? But I have to do my work now...

What's that? Don't worry about it? Well, okay.

Yeah, I wish. It's come to the point where a sleep-depraved delusion would be almost welcome. But no, it's just the bitter taste of reality and lots of work left to do. Ah well.

I am now officially divorced! As of April Fool's Day (there's got to be a metaphor in there somewhere...) I am a legally free woman. Felt weird but bloody fantastic. On this long road to figuring out who I am and what the hell I'm going to do with the rest of my life, it's nice to have the loose ends tied up. Now, if only I can weave those loose ends into some sort of man-catching trap all will be well.

I also won the SSHRC (Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada) award, so starting in September I'm actually getting money for school! How great is that! Apparently they have no idea what a bad student I am!

It's very cool though, as I'm also going to be doing my fieldwork in New Orleans. So in the new year I'll be heading down for 6 to 8 weeks in the Big Easy. Something tells me it's not going to be so "easy"... I keep having dreams of not being in shape, and having some gang chasing me down in order to toss me in the swamp. I really have no intentions of being "swamp-bait" so I'll have to get in shape this summer. Plus, something tells me I should be spending some quality time in the sauna and steam rooms at the school gym... It will be like Rocky preparing for his big fight, only instead of hanging out punching meat in a freezer, I'll be laying around quietly in a steam room. And instead of drinking raw eggs, I'll be practicing eating powdered doughnuts and drinking beer and iced tea. And instead of running up a huge pile of steps in the middle of town, I'll be practicing my "amble." In other words, it's not like Rocky at all. Except for the blaring "Eye of the Tiger" soundtrack which I will be playing over and over during my trip.

So, I'm off to write more stuff and such and try and keep myself actually in grad school, and prepare for a party at my old house that will not keep me in grad school. I think some of the profs are getting wise to my ineptness, but hopefully I can stave them off long enough to pass me, and then have a quick identity change in order to apply for a PhD. By that time it will be too late to do anything but give me a doctorate so I don't publish my "bribe" photos.

What? I didn't say bribe...

Gotta run!

Yours always!
VF