Wednesday, February 01, 2006

The Procrastination, It Continues

Time: 10:37am

Time I got up: 8:10am

Where am I now: blogging in bed

I am wearing: yellow pyjamas, and have my hair pinned back with bobby pins

I have eaten: leftover chicken burrito cassserole (you make what you'd put inside a chicken burrito, and then you just eat it out of a bowl). I washed it down with cold leftover jasmine tea.

Yesterday's goal for today: I was going to have read most of the pertinent parts of Joy Parr's The Gender of Breadwinners, and then today I was going to get up at a reasonable time, bus to school, photocopy all of my upcoming readings, and then spend the day reading them in the office, so that I wouldn't get distracted.

Where I actually am: I'm part-way through Parr's introduction.

Neuroses: I've been having some problems reading lately, exacerbated by the mild panic attack I had during historiography yesterday afternoon. I really hadn't done enough readings to be adequately prepared for class (the combination of conference and preparation for that morning's seminar), but I thought I understood them. Then, people started talking about the readings and I felt like I hadn't understood them at all. And I tried to glance in the readings, and the words looked entirely unfamiliar and they started to swim on the page, and the gale-force winds started making the whole atmosphere really loud and nightmarish... At the break, I told the prof that I was having an allergic reaction (because it was clear there was something wrong), and I went for a walk to go get some green tea to calm myself down. I also talked it over, during the break, with a couple of other students who felt in over their heads (like, another student ended up with a migraine by the end of class), and progressively I felt a little more stable. Like, I spent the second half of the class not feeling like I was about to bolt/cry/throw up any second. (At least a good nights' sleep has calmed the heart palpitations.) And now I've whined way too much, with a readership where I know that several of you have had way worse panic attacks, on a way more regular basis, than I ever have.

The moral of the story: It's a bit harder today to get into my readings, because there's this lingering self-doubt. Maybe I should shower, get dressed, and go do some photocopying, because that would all be active and productive.

The trade-off for having a really easy cell phone number: I get an inordinate number of wrong number calls. Fortunately, I usually have my phone off, or the ringer off, because I'm frightened that I'll accidentally leave my phone on during a class, and end up getting a call.

Good news I forgot to mention: Chris got his shift changed! He now doesn't start work until 7:00am, as opposed to 5:00am. It makes life more liveable, since it means bedtime isn't until 11:00pm. And now his weekend is Friday/Saturday, which is almost a normal weekend (and he doesn't start on Sunday until the middle of the afternoon). We get fun Saturday mornings again! (Next stop: Sook-Yim Lee and pancakes!)

Now the time is: 11:33am. (Whoops! I went looking for a link and got reading over past bloggy stuff...)

2 comments:

Pink Cupcake said...

Sorry that you had a tough day yesterday - I've had plenty of similar days since I've been a grad student, so I know how horrid they can be. Be sure to treat yourself with something nice today and take things easy...you'll get there with all the readings and other work.

Good to hear that Chris has changed his shifts. I look forward to Pancake Blogging. :)

Fishsticks said...

Panick attacks are all scary, especially the first time. Sorry to hear you had one but glad you were able to get over it relatively well.