On having nothing to say except UGH!

I write this at what I hope is the end of a period of distractions from working on what I'm suppose to be doing this summer. The fluctuating weather stiffled my motivation to work on anything and I haven't been able to concentrate on much since returning from Kansas. Some days the only thing I can do is sit on the floor in front of a fan wearing next to nothing just trying to keep cool. On the days that the temperature finally is low enough to accomplish something, I find myself overwhelmed with everything that piled up during the week. Everything is dirty (it's amazing how messy things get around here when the fans are turned on non-stop), I have to go grocery shopping and try to cook as much as possible before the next heat wave comes, and the only thing I want to do is sleep. Just the same, I feel enormous pressure to make progress on Geraldine. Lately this pressure combined with heat exhaustion has left me feeling cantancorous and overwhelmed. I feel like a complete failure at least once a day, mostly because I haven't produced anything. Since when did production become measurement for academic achievement?

Although I haven't been able to keep up with a 4 hours a day/ 5 days a week dissertation work schedule, I have worked on it daily. For the last week and a half, my major accomplishment has been copying etymologies from 6 dictionaries. For the non-linguists, I'm copying the dictionary in languages that I don't speak. Most of the time, this menial task is interesting, but I find that I cringe everytime I have to write down something in Greek (and every dictionary entry I copy refers to Greek). I still have German, Latin, Greek, Indo-Germanic, and Russian dictionaries to go through. Because this task can be so dull, I distract myself with Netflix. I watched all 23 episodes of the first season of Ugly Betty in a week. Watching TV while copying the dictionary slows me down a lot, but it makes me feel better about myself. After all, copying the dictionary isn't exactly something to brag about. On occasion I run in to acquaintences who ask about my activities. Sometimes an "I'm writing my dissertation" suffices, but when these people want more details, I try not to admit that "I have to look for more data" means "I'm reading the dictionary for 4 hours a day every day."

Just as I finished the first season of Ugly Betty, the Olympics started. And there are hours and hours and hours of competition for more than 30 sports available at any given time. Ah... distractions...... Maybe if I just forced myself to spend a whole day locked in my office I would be done copying the dictionary already (it's air conditioned there!) but so far that hasn't happened.

Meanwhile, I'm also suppose to write a paper about Irish body part terms and how they have changed over time. Again, I think I'd rather watch the Olympics, but how does one go about explaining that to a publisher???

At the end of each day, I want to be able to look back and feel a sense of pride in my accomplishments as a dissertator. Instead, the only thing I feel is best described with UGH!!!!!! So far I haven't fallen victim to banging my head against the wall, but I don't think that's far away. Maybe I'll feel better in August.