A Little Old School Bitchin’ and Moanin’

My dear friend, WesTexGirl, was just bemoaning the fact that she didn’t accomplish enough (in her opinion) during her semester break. I think that if you have to deal with giving and grading final exams, and then turn around and start teaching again in 14 days, you are entitled to a little down time. There’s nothing worse than going back to work after a vacation and feeling like you never stopped working.

I can see the mountain of work ahead of me for this semester and often feel overwhelmed by it. The worst offender is my term paper, because I know that it will take a lot of time and effort—both of which I will also need for my regular classwork, my exams (not including finals), and the translation job that is hanging around our (mine and John’s) necks like a millstone. So I am trying to get the paper out of the way as soon as possible, which means I have spent every extra minute during the last week reading the pile of articles I copied last semester. There’s a certain momentum I’ve gained, and I feel like I’ll be right back at square 1 if I don’t grab onto it now and keep forging ahead. Besides, my advisor is *still* waiting for something from me.

Part of the delay is that I haven’t quite sorted out what it is I’m going to write about. A paper is supposed to be an answer to a question, and I think my question is “How does suppletion arise?” Different authors have given different reasons, some of them overlapping, but one mentioned a particular reason, but then said she couldn’t go into it further in her article. I had thought I was done with the research phase, but now it seems like I have to hit the library again.

Yesterday it was my turn to do the grocery shopping, but we also needed some stuff from the electronics store, so I hauled myself across town to the big all-in-one shopping center. I hate going there, because I always spend a painful-to-me amount of money. Somehow I feel like I’ve gotten ripped off, and by the time I’ve run my small errands but haven’t even set foot in the grocery store, I feel barfy. Seriously. Low-level nausea the whole trip. I swear, I could go in for bread and milk, and still spend 100 bucks.

So I’ve spent most of the weekend nauseated at the thought of the grocery shopping, and the term paper. Not so much the presentation I’m giving tomorrow, but I will definitely have to organize my info a little more this evening.

Hannah is out of school for 2 weeks, but John and I aren’t, so the next 2 weeks are going to be stressful, just because we have to tote her back and forth to the university with us, which is also no fun for her; at least she can entertain herself pretty well with a book or drawing. I hope it dries up a bit, then she can spend some of her down time on the playground, but otherwise we will try to squeeze in trips to the library and maybe the museum. And a lunch or 2 out. Fortunately, June 5 is a holiday, and John doesn’t teach on Fridays, so that’s a bit more free time for at home. *sigh*

The weather hasn’t been helping my frantic mood. It has been raining off and on for over a week (it was “on” for about 3 days straight), and today is the first time we’ve seen the sun in ages. It still isn’t warm (our ranges have been in the 50s and 60s), but I’ll take “not raining” for now, particularly since the ceiling was leaking again in the dining room under the construction site.

I keep swinging back and forth between not wanting to eat anything and only wanting to eat chocolate and Pringles; seeing how I can’t afford to be sick, I have to pay attention and make sure I wash down the Pringles with real food (a peach at the moment). Luckily, the only sweets left in the house are a few mini-packs of mini-gummi bears, but the fruit dish is full.

Ok, next time less bitching and moaning. Maybe.