Friday Five

1. Rowen is all better---except for the bald spot on her foreleg. The anesthesia took about 24 hours to wear off, but she's back to her normal, crazy self.

2. I'm off to San Francisco next week. I'm presenting a paper at an anthropology conference. I'm completely freaked because I think this may be when the truth finally comes out: I'm a complete fraud and no nothing about anthropology, voluntourism, or Malawi.

I read a draft of the paper at a graduate student workshop last week, but the attendees were all friends, and as great as they are, they are all big liars. I wrote the first draft of the paper in the wee hours, after finishing three proposals that were all due the same week. I was completely incoherent both when writing and when presenting the draft.

At least I still have a week to try to fix it!

3. I can't believe that we're in the middle of November already. I made it through my "hell week": three grant proposals and a conference paper draft. But I'm losing steam, and I still have four weeks of classes to go and two papers to write. One of the papers is in Swahili, and the other is a major literature review on the political economy of development.

4. Today, I got a big box of yarn to make things for my sister's baby. So, of course, I want to dive right in and ignore the book I have to read and write a response paper on, the stack of exams I have to grade, the Swahili essay I have to write, and the tower of books on political economy of development that I was supposed to start reviewing about a month ago.

5. I also went on a small book binge right after finishing my grant proposals, including buying the new Toni Morrison.* And it's a cold, overcast afternoon. And I really, really just want to make a cup of tea, snuggle under some blankets, and read the Morrison novel.

*sigh*

Maybe I'll pour myself a stiff drink and tackle the exams instead.


*I'll post an "On the Pile" update soon!