No internet and no phone make Laura something something...

Go crazy! Don't mind if I do!

The summer of construction outside my window has had a more immediate effect on my life other than the 6 days a week of noise... they cut my phone line! So if anyone is trying to get ahold of me, I am using my cell... that I never ever use. If you don't have my number, email me (which I check from the U) and I will send it to you.

It is t-14 days until the deadline, but I am having my doubts. My supervisor has been MIA most of the month and I am feeling off track in some of my chapters. I am working constantly, but the end isn't clear yet. Oh well, back to work!

All By Myself...

All my colleagues have been away at a conference for the past week, so my office has been dead quiet that whole time. There is no one to go for lunch with, no one to chat and commiserate with, no one at all. I have been fairly productive, but the quiet is starting to drive me batty. I just hammered out a brand new outline of the whole thesis, but I need some face-to-face time with my supervisor to confirm that this is the direction I should be heading. I don't know when she is back in town. Oh well, I will just keep working and hope I am not regressing... again ;o)

Good news!

I am getting enough money for the car that I should be able to replace it with a fairly decent model. Yay!

In other news, I went on my annual Mud Run last night. My Mud Run is where I go out running with the purpose of getting dirty, so I can come home and have a super hot shower and clean up. It was so rainy and dreary most of yesterday that I thought it would be the perfect day, but by the time I got a chance to go running, it had turned into a sunny evening. I had to be happy with splashing in the remaining puddles rather than getting DIRTY. I guess I can suffer...though, I might just have to take advantage of the next time it is nasty out :o)

Car update

The car is a total loss. Now I have to wait for SGI to determine the market value and cut me a cheque. I was really hoping that the car was fixable. This is turning into a pretty big hassle.

Feeling better

It is funny how a day of mellowing out can really make me feel better. I didn't do a heck of a lot on the thesis yesterday, but I really wasn't in any sort of mindset to do much of anything. I am still waiting on insurance to get back to me so we can get that stuff moving.

Today I feel raring to go on it, which is nice. I think I might try out the campus gym today to work up a sweat. And tonight, I am gonna try and make some light changes while watching the season finale of The Apprentice. Oh, someone cure me of my addiction to certain reality TV shows!

Well, back to work :o)

2 cars and counting...

I got into a car accident yesterday evening. I am okay and they are okay, but the cars are not okay. It looks like I will be back with SGI again. I am just hoping that my car can be fixed, rather than having yet another write off. Well, I had better get back to work.

T-51 days and counting...

I handed in a draft of ch 3 to my supervisor today. She seemed pleased. I was pleased to quit working on the sucker. My brain is now dragging to get to ch 4, the Connie chapter. I could really use a boost on that one. I think I will tackle the overall structure first, to make it parallel with ch 3, then start looking where I need to fill-in-the-blanks in my argument. If I make some of these global changes to the draft today, then tomorrow can be an intensive editing day. Hmmmm... maybe I should watch my Connie tape tonight, so I am still working on my thesis a bit, but it is really light work. That will help prevent that nasty brain fog I had last week. Sounds like a good plan to me.

Back to work!

T-52 days and counting

It is funny how when you have an intensive writing project, so many other fun things come up that you want to do. Alas, "no" is now a regular staple in my vocabulary, but only to the fun stuff. I am beginning to wonder if the countdown is for when the thesis should be done or if it is the day I will finally be rid of this massively annoying project. I am quite excited for the day when I can say, "I have no thesis work to do!" I think 52 days might be a bit short though, that doesn't count the committee revisions, the defence, the binding, or all the paperwork that needs to go to grad studies (well, not that much, but it is there).

At least I will have half a summer :o)

Well, back to work!

T-56 days and counting

I woke up yesterday with a fog over my brain. I didn't feel like I could be productive at all. It think that was a sign to change my work habits a bit. Thirteen hour days of intensive editing give me hangovers, so I am going to balance the intensive nose-to-the-page editing with some lighter tasks so that I don't get sidetracked.

I wrapped up my work at SIAST yesterday as well, though there may still be some more marking trickling in by Friday. Teaching at that college was a great learning experience, and I might even consider doing it again if I have time in my workload next year. I am a little freaked at the prospect of next year, but I will worry about that after the defence.

Back to work!

All by myself

The university is one lonely place once May hits. I am here working on the thesis (t-58 days and counting) and there is barely a soul around. Not a single colleague to commiserate with. I guess that means I will just have to work.

Speaking of work... here is a little article I found quite inspiring for some strange reason:

Lucas forced himself to write Episode III

Hollywood mogul George Lucas struggled so much with writing the screenplay for final Star Wars installment Episode III - Revenge of the Sith, he had to force himself to stick to a rigid working day as he sought inspiration. The hugely successful movie-maker, 60, took on the persona of a normal office worker as he sat at his desk for nine hours a day, five days a week - and he still only managed to produce five pages everyday. He says: "I am very diligent about writing. I go to work at 8.30am and leave at 6pm. I sit there with that page in front of me but I still can't write it. "I do get it done, I actually write five pages a day. But I force myself - otherwise I would probably write a page a day."

I am not a big George Lucas fan, but it is nice to know that some of the most successful people in the world have similar writing struggles.

Conspicuous absence

Well, after a month of heavy marking and thesis writing, I had my committee meeting yesterday. I have a firm and fast deadline for the completion of my thesis... July 1st. The defence is anticipated for sometime in the last half of July, because one of my committee members will be in town then anyhow. It looks like I have my work cut out for me in the next 2 months. This is both exciting and terrifying to me right now. Back to work.

Car update

Well, SGI declared my car a write off and has decided it is worth $800, subtract the $700 deductible and I get a whopping $100 for my inconvenience. They get to sell the car off for parts and my $700 deductible. I feel absolutely ripped off now, more ripped off when the damn thing was stolen. The police are closing the case because there were no prints recovered and I am left to get another vehicle.

Thank goodness my parents are willing to help me out finding another junker until I am done school and making a bit of money and not paying tuition.

Some April Fools day...

I awoke this morning at 6:15am to the phone ringing. It was the city police. Apparently, my car was stolen and recovered before I even knew it was missing. It was found on the other side of the city when someone reported a suspicious vehicle parked on the street. I can get it back from the impound lot later this afternoon, but I guess a window is broken and there is damage to the steering column that will need to be fixed. On the other hand, how lucky am I that I will even get my poor little junker back... so many vehicles get stolen and the owner's never see them again, and the few repairs to my car is going to be less expensive than trying to replace the whole car.

Of all days too... I went and checked my spot to make sure someone wasn't just playing a joke on me. All that was in my parking spot was broken glass and the part of the steering column that the thief ripped off to hot wire it.

Mother Nature's response

She decided to send me fishtailing down a major overpass and has now decided to hold my car hostage in its own parking spot. Oh well... I am going to have some hot tea and go to bed... she can't be this mean tomorrow too ;o)

Open letter to Mother Nature

Quit screwing around with all this white crap and give us a real spring already!!!!

Sincerely, Laura

Well, the only good thing about this weather is that it has put me back in the mood to try my hand at making mulled wine. Maybe I will do that one evening while the snow still flies.

Morning at the University

Well, I am up and I am here. I just finished my delicious banana chocolate chip muffin and I am sipping my English Breakfast tea. It is so peaceful, I am dreading the thought of tainting this with work.

I have been feeling a bit overwhelmed lately, but what I think I really want is more time to do some things that really ground me, like cleaning and organizing. I really really want to get my pile of papers organized and filed, which is a project I have procrastinated on for months. All I need to do is pick up some hanging folders, two racks to convert my cabinet into one that can accommodate hanging files, and some labels then I can plow through this paper party in one day I am sure of it.

I don't feel completely disorganized, but there are certain things in my surroundings that I find quite draining... and this paper pile is one of them. The other is my thesis.

I have been working on it and working on it, but I don't feel like I am making progress because I am not getting many new pages, but I am making improvements to the writing of each of the chapters. I just want this thing to be done now. I know I will get it done, I just want it to be sooner than later.

Treated myself

I went today and picked up the latest CD by Tori Amos called "The Beekeeper." I am quite pleased with it. It is great background music for puttering around my apartment.








I finally unpacked a box that my parents gave me from my grandmother's old things when they were cleaning out her condo. It is a lovely set of china for 8. It is cream with silver flowers and trim. I absolutely adore it. I think I might finish up my marking with a cup of tea in one of the cups and saucers from the set. I love being a girl :o)

Plugging away

Today is a desk day if ever there was one. I have plunked myself behind my desk and don't plan on going very far until I have some solid work done on Chapter 5 of the thesis. I am planning on going on a little excursion to Edmonton on Thursday morning to visit Jimmy for a few days. That will be a welcome break after all this intense work.

This past week, with some much-needed help from Brennan, I rearranged my apartment. It is funny how refreshing it is to have slightly different surroundings. Myrah freaked out a bit with the changes, but she has settled in nicely. I am enjoying the much airier feel of my apartment now. Also, my computer has been brought out of the dark ages of Win 98 and right into the present with Win XP. That has really improved the day-to-day operation of my computer.

Well, I shouldn't take too long a break to blog, so I am off to chain myself back to my office desk. Ta ta!

The New Term

Welcome to 2005... albeit a bit late, but that is not a problem. I am in the middle of a new term and have news. I took on a new job. So now, in addition to writing my thesis and teaching at the U, I will also be assisting another teacher at the local tech college. It is a good course, but definitely a different scene from my students right now. The money will really help out as I am finding it tougher and tougher to make ends meet with just the one job.

Speaking of money, I am counting the seconds until payday. It is only at the end of the each month, but my last paycheck came on Dec 24th. So I am waiting a week longer for pay and the last paycheck overlapped with Christmas and travel and generally excessive spending. Eek!

As for new years resolutions, I have been making it to the gym a lot this year, and I have been making lunches for myself fairly regularly. The Bacon Buffeteria is a bit on the pricey side when you eat from it everyday... and as dubbed, features bacon in just about every dish. Bacon is my arch nemesis. Down with bacon! Well, I will continue my crusade against cured pork products tainting my meals another time. In the meantime I have to slog through a few more assignments.

Merry Christmas!!!!

Hi all! I am in Cranbrook, BC visiting the family for our annual Christmas gathering. I am just relaxing and letting my tummy decompress after a rather large Christmas dinner sans turkey and gravy of course ;o)

I got lots of wonderful and thoughtful gifts this year. Much thanks to everyone!!!

There will be pictures when I get home from the trip. In the meantime, happy holidays to everyone and I will see you soon!