Work Work Work

So my appointment schedule today is booked solid, and yet my 10:00 person isn't here yet.
My students have a topic proposal due next week, and this stresses me out because even though the class is P/NP and doesn't count for anything academically (because it is not for letter-grade), I take the assignments and my students very seriously. The last assignment is a 10 page research paper, which most of them haven't had to write before, and which most of them need a lot of help to get right . . .

so in theory, they shouldn't show up 20 minutes late!

Alas.

I can't believe we are into the seventh week of the quarter, and I've yet to start writing my chapter. 32 students, a paper to revise and a panel proposal, plus the need to be supportive of my friends and colleagues who are trying to get jobs (if for no other reason than the karmic obligation to support others so that there will hopefully be someone to support me next year should I have more luck on the job market . . .) but all of that leaves little time or energy for the new material, and I need time and energy in order to break myself out of the dissertation stasis that has set in.

But the good (?) news is that the deadline is becoming more scary and more real, and there's nothing like a deadline to motivate! It scares the pants off me to think that I need to finish and graduate this summer (and perhaps that fear is also contributing to my stasis!), but worse is the fear than I won't.

Anyway, the next few weeks will be good because I'll get a lot of things out of the way--will get the paper and the proposal out the door, will finish the final test-prep class and not have to worry about it any more (maybe ever again), and will not be dumb enough to take 7 extra students next quarter. All of those things will free up brain space and help me to focus on finishing.

And that will be good.
:)