Wednesday, January 28, 2009

GiST: Day 7 - Batman Cape edition

1. jo(e)'s post about her Sabbatical Scarf reminded me of how I wrote my MA thesis while wearing crazy stuff, like tiaras or silly hats. (Well, and I wrote my grade 12 essays while wearing rain gear.) Somehow, wearing something silly set apart my work time and helped me to focus. I then remembered what I announced at Meg and Karl's wedding, when they gave me a Batman cape as a thank you present: "I'll write my dissertation in this cape!" So, I'm wearing the Batman cape. And I got better work done today than I have in a while. Those of you who sometimes stop by my house should be forewarned.

2. Wearing a Batman cape AND getting good work done today? I think that should count for two good things today.

3. I managed to get a seminar group to get excited about discussing nineteenth-century city planning and the growth of the state. And they'd been whining about the chapter before we started discussing, thinking it was pointless. But I got them excited about it. Some days I can't make any headway, and some days I feel like I'm doing something right.

4. The TA I work with in this night class is the coolest. She's one of our first-year MAs and she comes off initially as all sweet and shy, but she's totally a flamenco dancer. You know, when I was an undergrad I never thought of my TAs in terms of "Maybe she's a secret flamenco dancer."

5. Hey! I forgot to mention one of the fun things that happened yesterday! When I got home from school on Monday, I found that my landlady had put two red envelopes in our mailbox for Chinese New Year. They held candies that tasted like the peanut-y, wafery insides of a chocolate bar. That's pretty exciting when you're only expecting to find credit card bills.

5 comments:

The Blog Fodder said...

Those of you stopping by my house should be warned...about what? You are wearing ONLY the batman cape?

Queen of West Procrastination said...

Oh, Uncle Al.

Anonymous said...

While writing my master's thesis, I accidentally answered the door wearing an orange poncho and a three string pearl necklace.

And yes, I was fully clothed as well, Dad.

Queen of West Procrastination said...

That orange poncho is magical for getting work done. I think I might also tie a scarf around my head today.

Unknown said...

you know, I can honestly say that I never wore fancy stuff like ponchos or capes while writing my MA thesis - unless you count wearing PJs for 3-4 days straight... maybe I'll try the more hygienic strategy and find something inspirational to wear during PhD dissertation time!