BlogFerret

Was like this one?

Do I need to say more?

Grr. Why is it, that when I wanted so much to return to school, that when I get here, doing any of my assignments is like pulling teeth. I can’t get motivated to do the assignments, and once I get there, sticking to the work is extremely difficult.

It makes me want to overeat. I am also getting a bit disillusioned with graduate school in general. I hear that this is common. To top it off, I am taking 9 hours, which doesn’t sound like a lot, but with the faster pace of the quarter system and the higher workload, it’s actually frazzling the pants right off me.

Oh, and I will never, repeat NEVER be a librarian. Bibliography is some of the least interesting stuff in the world to me. Oh, I absolutely love the major ideas and concepts behind the whole thing, and the history of print is fun, too. Still the actual mechanics of bibliography are kind of dry. Linguistics wasn’t this bad. I actually ended up sort of enjoying linguistics. I don’t know if I’ll feel anything but relief when bibliography is over.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-xEzGIuY7kw

I mean, he never left, or course, but it’s been a while since I really wanted to get one of his albums when it came out.   I thought maybe I had “grown out” of him or something.  Fortunately, I was wrong — he can still make me laugh.

Now that my evenings are mostly taken up with study (graduate professors are apparently reluctant to have classes before 3pm) all sorts of things happen in the evening.  Where previously we would rent movies or just sit around staring at each other, now people James works with invite us to dinner.  At least he gets to go.

I am actually surprised at how tired I was after my first week of school.  It doesn’t seem like the workload is that much greater than undergrad, but maybe the 30 minute drive each way is doing it?  I don’t really know.  I hope I get used to it.

So apparently I am injuring myself trying to carry around my books and my laptop at the same time. James got me a realy neat red laptop case from Target for my birthday but I can’t fit my school books into it. I have a sleeve for the laptop and I put it in my backpack, but I think I hurt myself carrying it like that all last week.

The obvious solution is a rolling bag. Now of course, I want one of those cool looking rolling “backpacks” or briefcases, but honestly I really shouldn’t buy something just for asthetics, and the really neat ones are always expensive. I do have a small carryon piece of rolling luggage. I am almost ashamed to admit, though, that I am hesitant to use it for one simple reason: it ain’t cool enough. I mean, why the hell should I care if something is cool or not if it keeps me from giving myself back problems and I don’t have to spend a bunch of money on it? What do I care if a bunch of stupid college students see me hauling my mobile office around in what is obviously a small overnight case?

What do you guys think? I know you’re out there.

It occurs to me that I’ve been “on the internet” pretty steadily since around 1992. Well, I guess before it was public domain doesn’t really count, but whatever. Still, lately I find that I don’t have as much fun on the internet as I used to. I know, I know, geek blasphemy. But it’s true. I have started even preferring books, movies, and even *gasp* tv when I come home at the end of the day.

It’s like this: I almost feel like I’ve run out of things to do. I don’t really have time for WEBoggle anymore, and anyway I don’t score as high now that there are more players. I guess many of them are smarter than I am. I have become really bad at keeping up with reading blogs, even my friends’ blogs, which I should be extra motivated to read. Luckily many of them are like me so they don’t post very often and I can catch up. Even the forums I used to post at have had some sort of change in dynamis at one time or another and it was always at around the time I got busy and didn’t have time to keep up with it.

I have all these excuses for something that I obviously have control over, but basically something’s changing now for me that has basically remained constant for 15 (ack) years! Incidentally, does anyone else have this monster IM contact list that still only has the same four people online most of the time, and then those people are idle more often than not? (I’m always idle, too - heheheh.) The internets has changed, and I’m just a poor fossil left behind. Or maybe I’ve changed. Either way, it’s weird.

What do I do now? I already took up knitting as a hobby. I supose I could get more exercise or something. Or clean my house.

Sure, and maybe monkeys will fly out of my butt.

Thursday I started the MA program at Louisiana Tech.  I am pretty excited about it, actually.  I am taking 9 hours: Research and Bibliography, Teaching Composition, and 16th Century British Literature.  The first two are sort of “core curriculum”.  It is pretty exciting to get to take all your classes in your preferred field, instead of having to do things you don’t really care about.

I’m also  just excited to be getting on with it: I know it’s a long road from here to the PhD, but it’s a relief to be making some sort of progress.  It also makes me feel more “normal” to have a routine again instead of just a part time job.  Although as excited as I am about this quarter, I will be SO excited to do the assistantship next quarter.  I know assistantships in all their forms are merely plebe labor, but it is exciting to know that I will actually be getting some experience in what I really want to do.  I wat to start teaching and researching, because that is probably what I will end up doing with most of the rest of my life. That is, until I “retire” and become a Renaissance Festival glassblower.  Heheh.

Isn’t it hilarious that I can go from just entering grad school all the way to retirement in one blog article?  I so rock.

I wish I’d seen this BEFORE my birthday had come and gone. Yes, it was my 30th birthday (Sep 1st), and no, I don’t see why someone of my now advanced age wouldn’t carry a purse with a crazy Warhol-inspired pattern all over it and a banana keychain.

I have way too many bags, despite having gotten rid of all but 3 at this time last year. I think I’m now up to 6 or 7 — four purses, one backpack, and one big totebag. Oh wait, and hubby got me a laptop bag. That’s 8. I guess I’m just a bag lady or something. Logic tells me that I can only use one purse at a time, but I have to have 3 black purses (all Coach - my mom gets rid of them and they’re almost NEW, so I can’t pass them up. Unless they’re super ugly. I admit, I could have had a Louis Vuitton, but those are so hideous that I declined.) The reason I need so many is that they’re not all the same. I swear it. And I have my everyday carryall thing — which really isn’t a purse, but it stopped me from lugging a big messenger bag around all the time, which I did until a year or two ago. I have to be able to carrry not only my PDA, phone, wallet, and keys, but also a paperback book and a flashlight. Why? Because you never know when you might need something to read, and you’d be amazed how handy it is to always have a flashlight.