Long but useful hiatus

Obviously I haven't been blogging, but really it has been going well! I had a committee meeting last month, and we agreed that I should proceed at as high a pace as I can manage and I went to work. In the past 3 weeks I've basically written my methods chapter from scratch, and it doesn't all suck. I'm supposed to hand it in on Saturday and it looks doable.

I'm really back in a writing groove and feel much more confident which is great. I feel so much less like a loser!

juice

I may have just reconstituted my committee. Perhaps this thing will work out after all!

Are the wheels falling off?

Perhaps. Still no resolution to supervisor dilemma. Still grading. Still chewing obnoxious gum. But hooray for spring!

random bullets of crap - Saturday night edition

•I might be addicted to a really expensive brand of berry flavoured gum. Damn you free samples!

•I just read some advice for parents about serving your kids sugar in packets to help them understand how much a serving is...whyTF is anyone letting their kids eat sugar just as sugar anymore? Do people still put sugar on cereal or something? And why is a PACKET any more of a teaching tool than a SPOON?

•and while I'm ranting about parenting stuff, hey people stop setting girls up for the whole you-aren't-really-valuable-unless-you-are-pretty thing by saying how pretty they look before you even say hello to them. And stop setting boys up for hyper-masculinity by looking at me funny for putting my boy in a pink shirt; the kid likes pink okay?

•supervisor issue is not resolved. I am starting to freak out. The opportunity that might have been great? I don't think it exists. I'm not sure, but pretty sure. Damn. My academic future looks somewhat bleak at the moment.

•had a delicious dinner tonight! Scalloped potatoes, carrot and sweet potato soup and chard stir fried with garlic and hoisin sauce, oh yum! All organic veggies, and cheese bought from a local shop that mostly has local cheese or cheese from Quebec.

•the three-year-old loves chard. Happy, happy day.

Deep breath

My supervisor is on sick leave again. Not really sure what to do with this news. And there is a settlement in the labour dispute, which we have to vote on, the settlement and the voting both make me feel sick.

Possibilities

were presented to me yesterday morning that would be AWESOME if they come to fruition. In the short term they have me much re-motivated on the dissertation front, in the long term they would set me up to finish and have work afterwards. After that the day went to hell in a hand-basket: lost library card, streetcar tantrum (O's not mine), peed on snowsuit (again, O), two more tantrums from O and then poop in the bath tub. Any couple of those things in one day would be okay, but all of them between 1 and 8? Ai yi yi.

Is it just me?

Or is this email inappropriate? (I paraphrase to protect my identity, and the student's).

"Are you still teaching your course on universe/society that you taught at the Uofp? I am doing a phd at WONKA and interested in the subject area.

thanks

Student"

No salutation. Incorrect spelling and grammar. Doesn't even use hir last name, let alone mine. No indication of how ze came to know that I taught the course and what hir specific interest in the frankly huge subject area might be ("universe/society" is not even that far off the breadth of what the course covers). Does ze want the reading list? Hoping for a TA position? Wants me as a committee member? Ze knows ze is emailing a prof, right? Okay, I don't quite have my degree yet, but I wouldn't send an email this bad to a fellow PhD student, let alone a Course Instructor.

Random bullets of what happened to spring??

•Snow. Not a lot, but enough, and cold with wind so a -12 cº windchill this morning. I was really done with winter, and yet here it is again. Sigh.

•Students. The usual requests for extensions, and could I explain the assignment that was already explained, and I can't post it to the website.... I would like to be done with this!

•Birthdays. O's was in February and because of schedules and illness we still haven't actually had a party for him! Shockingly bad parenting, but at least he's not too stressed about it. We can't do it this weekend because of Easter. Sunday is also his sister's birthday, but since she's dead it isn't much fun, although O is totally pumped about it and can't wait to blow out her candles in her absence. On the one hand it is nice that someone is excited about her birthday, on the other hand it is mighty depressing that she is absent.

•Holiday. We are supposed to be taking one next month and are having a hell of a time organizing it. Let's just say that being married is sometimes (often?) the hardest thing I have ever done. I don't mean this in a mean-spirited sort of way, I am as much the problem as the other party, but just that figuring out what everyone wants, and needs, and all the discussions and compromises etc etc is difficult. I'm sure it will all work out somehow but right now it feels like the impossible dream.