Thinking Blogger Award

Look what I got:


Canape of Don't Take the Repeats has bestowed upon me a Thinking Blogger Award. (It's also the first time I've ever been tagged for a meme.) I first encountered Canape as she was coping with the immediate grief of a miscarriage. Miscarriage is a topic that is difficult for people to talk about and understand, and she wrote so thoughtfully and beautifully about her experience--more so than I ever did--that I felt a connection to her right away. I second Gerbil's award to her. Canape makes me think and also entertains me and moves me with her observations and contemplations.

So now it is my task to give some awards. The blogs I like to read--the ones that make me think--are the ones that combine the personal, profession, emotional, and intellectual, refusing to compartmentalize their lives. (This might sound strange to those who know I keep two different blogs--this is because I want to offer updates on my family to my extended family and long distance friends, but I don't necessarily want them coming over here reading what I'm really thinking about--so I guess there's some compartmentalizing there.) And of course, I like to read blogs of people who are concerned about the same things as I am, so all of the blogs on this list address parenting and academic issues. I have also deliberately excluded people I know in person, even though I daily appreciate the ways they make me think.

The Thinking Bloggers:
Anastasia
Scrivenings
Diss, Dat, and Diapers
Writing Maternity
My Handful

And now the buck is passed to you five--you are tagged and you must now award five Thinking Blogger Awards.

waiting

Of course academic things are still happening, but I can barely maintain my interest in them long enough to complete my required tasks, let alone blog about them. So we'll just let this stand in for blog posts for the next couple of weeks (but if you're interested in pregnancy updates, email me and I'll direct you to the other blog):

a rare photo

I just posted this on my family blog, but I thought it was worth sharing here, too. It makes me happy.

progress

My diss proposal is good. Now I have to go through the process of getting it filed so I can apply for a fellowship. I've been reading Irigaray and doing fine--much better than two years ago when I read it for the first time. I will try to get my essay revised in the next week, but I get a stack of student papers tomorrow and that needs to come first. We'll see. I am no longer frantic to get everything done--I will just do my best and take what comes. So there's progress, too.

In other news, the baby is making progress. I am dilated and having contractions that are somewhat painful, but that went on for weeks before RB was born. The due date is in three weeks. Everyone feels the need to inform me of the most convenient time for the baby to be born. Guess what? I don't care and neither does the baby. She will come when she comes. That's what babies do. We are not interested in your other plans.

There's no crib set up, but there is now a place cleared for the crib. She won't sleep there for a few weeks, so that's no big deal. We're trying to decide whether to continue with a project to paint the crib--we've bought paint and sanded the crib down already--or to abandon it and have my mother-in-law bring a different crib that does not require painting. I had a vision of lovely celestial patterns stenciled on the crib, but I quickly discovered that I am in no position to bend over painting furniture. So I think we'll just let it go.

I took some Benedryl last night and slept better than I have in two weeks. Now all I want to do is go back to bed and sleep for the rest of the day.

not exactly "nesting"

But I am cleaning my house so that when the baby comes my mother-in-law won't see what it normally looks like.

Spring Break? not for Sarah

So much to do, so very pregnant. No Spring Break for me. Too much work. Baby due in four weeks. No time for complete sentences.

And the to-do list grows

I had whittled down my to-do list to three major items: apply for teaching award, finish final revisions of proposal and file it, apply for funding with April deadline. Of course, teaching fits in there, too, but next week is Spring Break and my next student papers don't come in until after that. So today I got an email from the editor of the book collection that I submitted to. My essay has been accepted with revisions. And don't you think you should add some Irigaray? And have it in by May 15. Aack! So add another major project to the to-do list, and it's just not getting done before the baby comes. Focus on the good news--I can now add it to my CV as a forthcoming publication. That's nice since this thing has been drawn out over a year (I'm sure that's normal, but it still feels like a long time to wait). So now I must put my nose to the grindstone.

dining out with RB

Here's a kid story for you.

We went out to eat with friends Wednesday night, and we sat on the patio at the restaurant. Like typical outdoor furniture, the chairs were metal with no cushions and had openings in the seats. RB was wearing a dress and had it hiked up because she has decided she can't sit on her dress (very attractive at church when she pulls her skirt up to her chest before she sits down). In the middle of dinner, she turned to me and said, matter-of-factly, "I'm tee-tee-ing" (apparently she did not think this one warranted a trip to the potty). I looked down and, sure enough, I saw a steady flow coming through the holes in her chair down to the floor and rolling into the grass. What to do? I just waited until she was finished and then took her to the bathroom to change her underwear. She got nothing on her dress, no puddle in the chair, no puddle under the chair--no one around even knew what happened, including the people at our table! And the mess just rolled off the porch into the grass. I think we'll sit outside from now on!

much better

I'm not nearly as pouty and dreary as I was yesterday. I took the afternoon off and then last night we all met up with some good friends for dinner. Much better.

Today I showed up on campus and asked for any spare minutes that my advisor could give me, and he worked me in between class and a dissertation defense. And he had comments on my proposal. I still have some revisions to make, but I feel much better about these and I am confident that I can get them done before the baby is born and get my proposal officially filed in time for the April funding application deadline. Better yet, he said (with a bit of coaxing from me) that I don't have time to get it all done before next Friday for the department deadline. Now I feel like I have permission not to apply for those awards, and that makes one less thing to worry about. One less thing is good news right now. I am going to apply for a different award that is not related to my dissertation, and I am determined to meet the April deadline. So I'm not being a total slacker--just realistic in my expectations. It will all work out.