First, to give a brief overview of yesterday: I did not, in fact, have to shovel (though I did have to push quite a bit of snow off my car): the pavements were warm enough that the snow was pretty well gone by the time I was getting out the door. On the other hand, I went to yoga class, so my "work day" didn't start until about 1. I made several transitions: parked behind the bookstore/cafe, the Dolphin; walked back up the street to Dunkin Donuts for coffee, walked back toward the Dolphin but went into the library to work for a while; transitioned again to the Dolphin to meet former student/cat sitter/surrogate niece Naomi. She showed up at about 4:30, so that was the end of the day--and despite all the moving around (or possibly even because of it), it felt like a pretty good day.
This morning, the downstairs neighbors turned their music on full blast--at 7:12 a.m. Woke me out of a profound and delicious sleep and launched me immediately into pissed off. I went down the stairs and pounded on their door; they lowered the volume, and I tried to get back to sleep but realized very rapidly that I was far too awake by that point. So I got working today much earlier than usual, despite a leisurely start, and was working cheerfully along when, at about 1 p.m., BOOM BOOM CHICKA-BOOM BOOM BACHATA BACHATA blaring up from downstairs. I tried to keep reading but was way too distracted by skirting the edges of pissed off, so I thought, OK, I'll take a walk and hope either they've stopped by the time I get back or that I can breathe through the irritation and focus on working...
...because I only have one more critical article to do. One. ONE. Yet, when I got home from my walk, I realized I just wasn't going to be able to do it. My brains have decided to jettison any work-related skills, at least temporarily, and to have a longing to play computer game or watch cat videos or something.
And, I have to remind myself that there is still the possibility that a few more critical pieces will show up through interlibrary loan. But in terms of what I have in hand at present, I'm that close to done. Which means I can surely finish up tomorrow--and turn my attention to the only other faintly icky chapter I have to write (socio-historical context: booooor-ing). But as I said to Naomi last night, I'm rather enjoying this process of circling around the novel itself, drawing gradually closer to when I get to dive in, boots and all, and work my way through that delicious text in meticulous detail. I can't wait.
I have to say, it was somewhat chilly today, especially when the breeze kicked up, but it is gloriously sunny and I can walk around in my sneakers: I don't have to wear snow boots. I'm glad I walked and took advantage of the blessing from the weather gods.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment