It's just slow

I find I'm struggling quite a bit with a frustration about how slow this process is. I like the work rhythm, though today's "brain break" turned into "nope, I hit the wall," truncating the effective work time significantly. But I like that I'm in a rhythm of read a little, write a little--as well as read psych, read about Le Guin--so my brain never feels like it's silting up with too much in any one area. I also like the work at home/work at a coffee house rhythm: I can appreciate both the days I spend not at home and the days when I don't leave the nest--except, as in today, to get some exercise and fresh air.

But it's slow. It's just really slow. I'm telling myself what I was telling Paul last semester: it all counts as work--and I've done a pretty good job so far in terms of keeping myself from ridiculous distractions. OK, I spent longer than I should have a few mornings ago looking for purple wool yarn online, but it didn't get too out of control. And I do have to recognize that when my mental processes start to freeze up (which usually manifests itself in an inability to concentrate on what I'm reading), it's time to either write, if I have something in my head ready to go onto "paper" or,  barring that, to pack it in.

I don't have a whole lot else to report today. I'm finding many references to books that I want to own: books that have been out of print for a long time (a lot of the scholarship I'm interested was written 30 or more years ago). I'm making notes of the specific items I want to find at the New York Public Library (though I realize I haven't fully explored the possibilities of inter-library loan). I finished going through one of the books I already have at home. I started another. I'm saving the second psych article I have to read for Wednesday's class until Wednesday.

I'm tired. I'm hungry. I'm going to take care of the second of those needs first, but that's all I'm thinking about now: taking care of the human animal (the feline animals, too, but the human animal probably will get first dibs.

And tomorrow is another day.