I’m not sure I’m quite…

I'm not sure I'm quite up to recapping the last three days yet. Soon. But in the interim, here's the plan for the next few days:

  • Wednesday - Clean house. Revise story and submit to Glimmer Train before reading period closes. In the evening, go to reception for my old high school -- they'll undoubtedly try to hit me up for money, but I'll just eat their food and drink their wine and cheerfully say no. :-)

  • Thursday - Goof off. Either playing computer games all day or maybe going into Borders and reading Kushiel's Avatar. In the evening, possibly go to hockey game with Kevin.

  • Friday - At 10:00, get written question in e-mail. E-mail Karl back to confirm that I've received it. Start thinking about it. Draft ideas. Choose books and critics to work with (if they give me any choice). Make outline. Possibly write intro.

    I *think* I can feel free to talk it over with people on the phone or in person, but I don't somehow feel comfortable posting it here and letting y'all comment. I'm not sure that distinction makes any sense. Maybe it's just that the people I'd likely actually talk to (Kevin, Karen, Jed, maybe David) aren't academics in my area, so they'd mostly be useful just as sounding boards. Whereas some of you are in closely-related enough fields that it might start feeling like collaboration, y'know? Which is not the purpose of an exam. :-) In the end, of course, I'm the one who has to write the darn thing, so perhaps this is slightly moot. It's an open-book exam, after all. But still, there are apparently limits on what kind of help feels appropriate -- and it's pretty minimal help. Mostly moral-support. :-) So I might babble a little in here over the weekend, but probably not so much.

  • Saturday - Draft paper.

  • Sunday - Draft paper.

  • Monday morning - Get up early and revise. E-mail back at 10 a.m. my time.

I'm feeling happy and celebratory, because the oral was the hardest part, I think, but there's still one big chunk of work left to do. So the real celebration will have to wait for next week.

6 thoughts on “I’m not sure I’m quite…”

  1. I’m always up for sounding board and moral support duties, and you know this stuff you’re working on interests me, so feel free to call any time you want to talk it through. I promise to be only minimally helpful!

  2. I don’t know if you need/want this kind of validation, but it makes total sense to me that you would use people you know really well and trust for sounding boards but not the internet at large. You can give them guidelines or limitations (“do NOT tell me something that falls outside the category of X”) and feel confident that they won’t exceed it. The same is not true of people who stop by in passing. I think your feeling of what’s appropriate is totally supportable.

    Hope you have a good relaxation day! Good luck! Good skill! And all manner of other good things!

  3. Ericka, I’m jealous!

    Mary Anne, I can second the recommendation (our household favors the Big House Red) especially since some of their wine names are appropriately philosophical (“Critique of Pure Riesling” and “The Heart Has Its Rieslings,” for instance).

  4. Thanks, Karen. I’m sure you’ll be hearing from me.

    And thanks, M’ris — the validation was appreciated, actually. I’m feeling a little muddled about what’s appropriate.

    I’ll keep in mind the wine recommendation. The only wine I know I like is the Rosemount Estate Shiraz (actually, I like all their shirazes). Everything else is generally a bit random — I’ll try to keep Bonny Doon in mind…

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