18,478 Hello Finals.

18,478. Minutes? Midnight? Cups of Coffee? Miles? No this isn't a "Rent" song.... but now that I think about it, it feels strangely appropriate.

18,478 is the number of words that I have submitted in the last week and a half. That includes a research proposal (1,530), discussion questions for my Congress class (453), 1st Question of Final for Congress (1,700), 2nd Question for Final for Congress (1,781), Public Budgeting Term Paper (5,947), and my second year paper (7,068). 9,428 of those I submitted today.

I don't really like to complain about school because 1) If you look at Facebook, it's become a cliche, and I hate cliches 2) The majority of the time, my job (and yes this is my job- which I determine by the fact that I work much more than 40 hours a week, and I also get paid a salary) is actually pretty great. I set my own hours for the most part, I get to turn my ideas into potential pieces of (hopefully) valuable literature, I like to learn, I like to teach, and I get to meet a lot of really interesting people and 3) Complaining makes me feel really ungrateful because at the end of the day I am ridiculously blessed for this experience.

So I am not going to complain. This is more of a "State of My World".

Siva and I have decided to go nocturnal. Which means that we are now working late in the lab and sleeping during the early hours, contrary to the school year when I typically get up early. I think he's actually been going nocturnal for years, so it's more like I am joining him.  If you can get yourself to get past the sleepiness of the first few nights, working up here at night is awesome. No one is here! (Which is also sort of creepy). No distractions. Just one goal: produce papers like crazy.

This semester I have been going like a crazy person. I decided to take 12 hours instead of the typical 9 for graduate students because I want to finish my course-work early so I can quit driving to Lubbock. That was all good and well when I enrolled. Finals week is proving to be a little more trying. I've organized myself out day to day and as long as I stay on track I should be fine. Probably a few new wrinkles, but fine.

Now, to be fair, I have had my game face on, but it hasn't been all work and no play.  Last week I went to hang out with Kristina and her boys (which gives me baby fever. It would be helpful if they weren't so darn cute!). We drank wine and visited for a while and it was really nice. She some how has her kids go to bed at 7:30. I don't know how she does it, but when I do have kids I totally want her secret! They were total sports about it too! A-mazing.
Matt came down to Lubbock this weekend and brought my sweet dog and we had some family time. We went out to the Llano Estacado winery with my roommate Lauren and called it a chill weekend over all. It's really refreshing to see my boys, and helps me to propel through the rest of the semester.

Yesterday I spent 14 hours in the lab. I got so much work done though and I am on track for a good semester (I hope!). I promise my blog will get better over the summer and there are lots of exciting things to post about. I am looking forward to a great break, one step at a time. I suppose I'll start paying attention in class now. This guy kills me.

Posted in: Ph.D.ing,Updates