maybe a new beginning
is this really fall?
*****
Oh my goodness, I am so excited about today. I'm serious, I feel like there are endless possibilities, and they're all magnificently boring, and it's the greatest thing. My plan is to get caught up on some of the most important things missing from my life for the past 3 weeks. By this I mean: drinking tea, listening to NPR, playing the piano, going grocery shopping, cooking, taking a nap, watching Six Feet Under, doing laundry, and maybe even reading something that doesn't have to do with phonotactic probability.
I turned in an incomplete version of my dissertation prospectus yesterday. I still have a lot to add to it, but the structure is there, and that's the most important part. Now I'm taking the day off (mostly, probably). It seems like everyone had a really rough week this week. Thankfully I ran into F in the hallway yesterday around 5:00 (I was admittedly trying to run into him, by going by his office) and we booked it over to Jupiter for a beer. I don't think I'm exaggerating when I say it was probably the greatest beer I've ever had. We sat upstairs by the window, overlooking downtown Berkeley in the fall twilight, and munched on olives and mused on life. After a while at Jupiter, we headed to the Albatross and met up with a small group of people who also had a rough week, and we somehow stayed out until 1:00 am or so. We were a little haggard and pathetic, I think... it seemed like most of us were at least partially falling asleep at some point... but it was so nice to be with friends, laughing and not thinking or stressing about getting my paper done. It's definitely close enough that I can take today and tomorrow off, I think. Then I'll work on it all day Sunday and Monday, and it'll be done for real. Done.
I had a glorious run in the rain just now. Absolutely beautiful. Not particularly far, but it was so nice to get out of the house, get some blood flowing, and just feel wonderfully, primally alive. When I sit at my computer all week, reading and writing and thinking, I start to get antsy and dissatisfied. People were not made for sitting at computers all day, and some part of my caveman brain knows that and gets grumpy if I suppress it for too long. Anyway, I woke up around 7:15 this morning, because apparently I have accidentally retrained myself that hey, 5 1/2 hours of sleep is probably enough. (It is not. But I digress.) And I just had to go. So me and the dogs did a little loop up and around campus, and it started drizzling about a mile in, but it was this nice, soft, spring rain that makes everything smell fresh and dirt-y and new. By "dirt-y", I mean it literally smells like soil, and I love that. Then I came home and actually cooked myself breakfast and made some tea, instead of subsisting on coffee and baked goods, as I have been for about two weeks now. I turned on NPR and sat down and ate my eggs and it was good.
You know what it is time for? Piano. And then a nice warm shower, and then lazing about in flannel pants and my Illinois hoodie, watching Six Feet Under until the rain lets up. Then there will be groceries and listening to music and cooking, and (nearly) all will be right with the world.
I turned in an incomplete version of my dissertation prospectus yesterday. I still have a lot to add to it, but the structure is there, and that's the most important part. Now I'm taking the day off (mostly, probably). It seems like everyone had a really rough week this week. Thankfully I ran into F in the hallway yesterday around 5:00 (I was admittedly trying to run into him, by going by his office) and we booked it over to Jupiter for a beer. I don't think I'm exaggerating when I say it was probably the greatest beer I've ever had. We sat upstairs by the window, overlooking downtown Berkeley in the fall twilight, and munched on olives and mused on life. After a while at Jupiter, we headed to the Albatross and met up with a small group of people who also had a rough week, and we somehow stayed out until 1:00 am or so. We were a little haggard and pathetic, I think... it seemed like most of us were at least partially falling asleep at some point... but it was so nice to be with friends, laughing and not thinking or stressing about getting my paper done. It's definitely close enough that I can take today and tomorrow off, I think. Then I'll work on it all day Sunday and Monday, and it'll be done for real. Done.
I had a glorious run in the rain just now. Absolutely beautiful. Not particularly far, but it was so nice to get out of the house, get some blood flowing, and just feel wonderfully, primally alive. When I sit at my computer all week, reading and writing and thinking, I start to get antsy and dissatisfied. People were not made for sitting at computers all day, and some part of my caveman brain knows that and gets grumpy if I suppress it for too long. Anyway, I woke up around 7:15 this morning, because apparently I have accidentally retrained myself that hey, 5 1/2 hours of sleep is probably enough. (It is not. But I digress.) And I just had to go. So me and the dogs did a little loop up and around campus, and it started drizzling about a mile in, but it was this nice, soft, spring rain that makes everything smell fresh and dirt-y and new. By "dirt-y", I mean it literally smells like soil, and I love that. Then I came home and actually cooked myself breakfast and made some tea, instead of subsisting on coffee and baked goods, as I have been for about two weeks now. I turned on NPR and sat down and ate my eggs and it was good.
You know what it is time for? Piano. And then a nice warm shower, and then lazing about in flannel pants and my Illinois hoodie, watching Six Feet Under until the rain lets up. Then there will be groceries and listening to music and cooking, and (nearly) all will be right with the world.
1 comment:
I envy you, your outlook on life that is. I lost that enthusiasm
somewhere along the way and I miss
it. Good for you and your attitude.
Love you,
Grandma
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