A Hopeful Ending to an Ominous Week

Anyone who saw me this week probably heard about one of the weird mishaps I experienced. In case you missed out on all the craziness, here's a recap for you. After replacing my radiator on Papa Smurf on Tuesday, a Pyrex dish shattered in my kitchen on Wednesday morning. The explosion sent glass, water, soy sauce and tofu to all the ends of my kitchen: oven, floor, sink, ceiling, and my lunch. Hubby kindly helped clean it up for me because I was late for my office hours and had to teach. That night I took myself out on a date  for Vietnamese food (Hubby was attending a concert without me). The foot was great, I got my daily fix of tofu, and walked home happy and full. When I arrived home, I discovered that the rabbit had chewed through wires to our stereo. While inspecting the wires, I received a big electric shock. I found electrical tape and in a hurry, I taped the wires and plugged them back in only to be the unhappy viewer of sparks flying across the dining room, a loud BOOM and a blown fuse. And the stereo stopped working. Ugh. Then on Thursday night, my keyring someone became uncoiled as I unlocked my backdoor and my keys flew across the back porch and stairwell. I have no idea what I did wrong this week, but apparently something or someone wanted me to know that it thinks I suck. :( Luckily, Indiana wasn't that something/someone.

I had a meeting with Indi on Thursday morning. He pretty much repeated everything he said in our last two meetings together, which were in July and May. That was fine by me, I needed the repeat and reassurance. It still seems like everything is on track, despite not being able to getting any work done due to the craziness described above. Indi told me to start making tables of my historical data and then gave me a new paper to read which he authored. I had no idea how to make tables for historical linguistic data, but after reading his paper (which had at least 10 tables of historical linguistic data in it), I had I better idea.

After spending all of Saturday afternoon and evening working on transferring data from note cards to tables on used computer paper, I am more than hopeful about the same pattern I've been trying to explain in various ways for the last 5 years. Until now, my explanation of the pattern was lousy. The theory I had used isn't widely accepted anymore and I couldn't account for all the non-example cases in the data. After spending a summer reading about other theories from pragmatics and semantics, I can now account for the non-example cases. The pattern is in both my cross-linguistic data and in my historical data. This is equal to the scene in a detective show in which the detectives have been staring at the same pictures of evidence and the crime scene for days and finally figure out the missing link. They still have more work before they can get search permits and permits for the criminal's arrest, but they know they have the right bad guy. There is no bad guy in my research, but my next steps are much clearer and I'm well on my way again. I still have a lot of data to sort through and more to collect (Greek and Russian), but the reoccurence of one pattern across the historical data has made my outlook on this week much brighter. (Of course the ice cream and shopping for new kitchen items last night with a friend also helped tremendously). Here's to feeling confident again and weeks of more tofu in new cooking ware.

Geraldine and the Quest for the Holy Hypothesis...

There have been many farces produced over the years in which a quest for something grand in a far off land drives the plot. I'm finding that writing a dissertation this semester resembles such films, as there have been monsters, temptations, wounds, duels, good deeds and fluffy black bunnies galore. Luckily, my big, black, fluffy bunny hasn't tried to bite my head off with her fangs, but she did try to bite my thumb off yesterday when I forced her to have "couch time" with me while watching another dorky German made for TV movie. I now have a cracked thumb nail.

The semester started with injuries to both of my index fingers. I cut one and burned the other. These minor flesh wounds healed quickly and didn't slow down my quest for a holy hypothesis. Three days later I realized that the funny feeling I kept having in my arms wasn't due to my clothes cutting off circulation, I was suffering from nerve pain. For two weeks I haven't been able to carry books, a backpack or fluffy black rabbits because doing so increased the pain shooting through my upper limbs. It turns out a disk in my neck is pinching a nerve, which is causing pain in my arms, elbows, wrists and fingers (which oddly also happen to be half of the body parts my dissertation focuses on...). My mornings have been spent at the chiropractor's office. The pain is mostly gone and I can type and hold a pencil without cringing again. It seems that stress triggers my spinal chord injuries to flare up. My word of advice for avoiding such irritants: don't fall off the roof of your house.

On the first day of the semester, my secretary was missing and someone new has been in her place ever since. This has led to being asked for help with many menial tasks, such as making tables and calendars, while waiting for water to heat for my daily tea. Meanwhile, students keep asking for favors (I couldn't make it to class, can I still get points??? kind of favors) and I wish that I could turn such students into newts (they'll get better).

The office computer that sits on my desk broke. I have no idea what happened to it. It won't turn on. The IT department is supposed to fix it but is taking forever to set up an appointment. I finally had an appointment this morning, but my car's radiator broke and I had to fix it before riding the bus to school today. My faithful steed, Papa Smurf, is supposedly healed and being held in captivity until I can pay the proper ransom. Until then, I can utilize the set of coconut shells hidden in my closet at home. As for the computer, maybe it will be fixed with a herring sent to the IT department.

I outsmarted the mean librarian so that she would give me a key to my study carrel. Her "none shall pass" attitude quickly changed with the mention of African swallows.My study carrel has proven to be the proper place to accomplish a lot of work.

My quest for a working hypothesis has been much longer than I anticipated. I am running out of rations and need to meet with a certain adviser. I just sent out a plea via SOS and hope the response doesn't come back in an annoying French accent. In the mean time, I don't think movie references will help me write about metaphor and grammar, but it does make me feel better.

The first week back

Summer is over and I can stop feeling guilty about the time I am spending focused on Geraldine. My first week back on campus was fun, productive and reassuring.

 For most of the summer, I felt lousy about the progress of my research. Sure, I learned about databases and rebuilt my database. I also copied entries from too many dictionaries to list here. I read a little and wrote nothing. I haven't produced any fancy reports from queries of my data, which means I can't really show off my database to my committee (or myself for that matter). The heat certainly distracted me and prevented any dreams of ultimate progress I had conjured up before the summer started, and it took me three months to come to terms with the new direction my committee wants me to take with my research. I also felt anxious about fall term starting again. I wanted to start writing in August but I wasn't ready. Would my committee start to doubt my ability to finish? Would I start doubting my May graduation goal? I have joked about my thoughts regarding the low number of people who will actually read my dissertation since I started this project, (5 if you count my committee, 6 if someone agrees to proof read it for me, 7 if I get to include myself, 8 or 9 if I apply for the Joseph Greenberg dissertation award for linguistic typology and maybe 3 more people will actually read it because they are interested in it) but all summer the "it doesn't matter, no one actually reads dissertations" feelings have been replaced by "my dissertation won't be worth reading." Perhaps this is why so many people write fascinating dissertations and then are never heard of again. A former professor of mine used to joke that people just buy farms in upstate New York after they write dissertations and that's how they disappear forever. I'm beginning to understand those people. When working on a project intensely for a few years or more, everyone must wonder at some point if their dissertations are worth reading. Pondering this topic not only makes me feel better about my work, it reminds me that it's time to throw myself back into my work again. Indi always tells me, a good dissertation is a finished dissertation. If I can finish it, it will be worth reading.
I worked for 4 days this week. 3 days were strictly devoted to Geraldine and the 4th was spent teaching my new class. Teaching was great. I had fun, my students smiled at my antics, and there were no teaching nightmares before my first class. I will meet my second group of students on Monday night. On Wednesday, I finally convinced the gate keeper of the library to give me a key for my own study carrel. Her responses to my pleas evolved as follows: 1) There are no study carrels available. 2) There are very few study carrels available and even after resubmiting an application, you may not get one. 3) There are no study carrels available on the 3rd floor. 4) I found a key to an open study carrel on the 3rd floor, west wing. Here is your key. You will be charged $25 next fall if you don't renew it. And with that, I received a key and had fun hunting all over the 3rd floor for my new carrel (FYI a study carrel is a glorified closet in the library with a desk, a lamp, a chair and a waste basket). I finally found it and you know what? It is five steps away from the two rows of books I consult most frequently. My carrel has one brick wall and three white walls with coffee stains left over from other academics who loathed and admired their work as much as I do mine. I have officially crossed the threshold to tenure-track bound awesomeness. I also now have the power to slip in and out of the stacks without anyone knowing where I came from. It's almost as cool as being able to teleport around campus.

I saw Indi briefly. He pointed a finger at me and walked away to a meeting. I think it was more of a greeting than a warning, but I e-mailed him an update just to make sure. I saw most of my friends and a lot of former students. My friends, it seems, didn't do much academic work over the summer and I feel better about myself. My former students' faces lit up when they saw me and they told me repeatedly how much fun my classes were and that they learned a lot. Again, I feel better about myself. Even one of my current students passed me on the way to the library and acted excited to see me. And at our first choir rehearsal of the season last night, my choir director announced my library award and gave me a newspaper clipping of myself. This can only mean one thing: This year is going to be my best year of school and I am graduating in May (okay that was two things... I lied). Now to keep up the positive energy that only the first week of fall term can bring and make it last until I write the first 4 chapters of Geraldine... Here goes!

The Last First Day of School

It's here: my last first day of school as a student. It only took me 24 years to make it to today. There have been a few last first days of school, but today is the only real last first day of school because by this time next year, I will be Dr. Kelsie.

The first day of school my senior year of high school was unmemorable. There are pictures of me from that morning in pajamas with my hands above my head. I must have been cheering when the picture was taken. I don't remember much about that year or the first day of school.  I drove a truck named Bubba, I was rarely on time to my first period class, I learned to tie my shoes while driving, and German and auto shop were the only classes I didn't skip. The rest of the year is best not remembered, but the picture of me remains.

The first day of school my senior year of college was spent running around campus, tracking down higher ups who could process my credits from Germany to determine whether I would graduate as planned. The new history department chair signed paper work for me that allowed me to get a history teaching license, the department of education gave me a BS reason to retake a stupid class about how not to teach because they made an error, and at some point I probably attended class. There was no picture taken.

Then I decided to get an MA and on the first day of school during my second year as an MA student, my office mate declared it "The year of us" because it would be the cool year of graduate school. And it was (except I took 5 graduate classes and taught three German classes that semester). No one took a picture. I think I had secret plans at that time to get a PhD, I just didn't tell anyone.

Last year the first week of classes was insane. There were long lines and crowds everywhere and I found myself asking where all of those students came from and how long it would be until they stopped attending classes. About two weeks later they disappeared and campus seemed normal again. Because the first week was a headache last year, I debated coming to campus today. In the end, the fact that it's my official last first day of school convinced me I should come, which was a good choice.

So how has the first day been? We mysteriously have a new office manager as of today. I spent the morning showing her the file system in the department office. My department chair informed me of his intent to split Kelly and I apart after being office buddies for 5 years so that two incoming TAs who teach together can share an office. I haven't decided who should move yet. I probably have 3 times more office accessories to relocate, but he has bigger books. As most of my graduate school career resembles Harry Potter, this must be like the the time Harry left Harmione in the tent and then got trapped in freezing water under ice. Therefore, I conclude that Kelly leaves the office and I continue to see how much useful stuff I can fit in here... Returning to today's events, I made a to-do list for the day related to Geraldine and completed half of it. I now know what to work on tomorrow. I also ran into a former German student of mine, which was a pleasant surprise. And he still speaks German (kinda). He has decided to take linguistic classes and I am convinced that my students do enjoy my classes after all. Other highlights of the day include riding my bike for 15 miles, arguing with someone who works in the library (no surprise), developing a random aversion to broccoli and being accused of having fully acclimated to this region of the US.  So, in retrospect, it was a such a good first last day of school, that I might come back again tomorrow. :) And there's a picture to mark the occasion.