Fell Off the Grid There

It's been one of those autumns where I think I missed November, but no matter - we had a great trip to Seattle, the kids did miraculously well with the long car trip (though we did break it up into a few days each way), and we had only one minor blip in Roseburg, Oregon when Peabo developed croup at midnight in the hotel room. At home I would have self-treated, but given that we were on the road, it seemed best for Gene to take her to the ER, not least because that distinctive bark of a cough was not going to let anyone sleep in the same room. One steroid shot and some breathing treatment later, we were good to go, and the doctor pointed out that we would be just fine in Seattle, given that the best immediate action to take if it cropped again was exposure to cool, moist air - so just open her window. Good thing we weren't headed to Arizona, I guess.

Both girls and I were down for the count with a cold for the duration of the trip, but in a strange way, it was nice: forced us to take it easy and not overextend everyone's good humor with loads of activities. We kept it to one a day, if that, and I think in the end, it made for a true vacation. Plus we watched a lot of Dora the Explorer. A LOT. I keep telling myself Dora is a far better obsession than that irksome purple dinosaur or something hyperactive, and it must be said, Peabo's counting is coming on a treat, probably due in no small part to the influence of Exploradora.

At any rate, I was also trying to chip away at term papers while away, and actually did all right all in all; they are officially due at the end of this week, but given the rash of holiday parties that start up on Wednesday, I decided to be a major dork and get them both done and in prior to that, so that I could play with a clear conscience. This required a certain level of sustained discipline that I know I didn't have while an undergrad and a stupid 20 year old, so it was a bit of a paradigm shift there, but curiously, I suspect that starting early, writing only a few pages at a stretch, and actually thinking about what I was putting down on paper will result in a better product. At least, that's my hope, considering that one of them is worth 65% of my final grade. I finished the 'easy' one last Thursday, and am within 2 pages of finishing the 'hard' one, which is both a relief and a bit stressful. Why? Well, the gentle paradox of long papers kicked in last night - I was initially worried that I wouldn't be able to get anywhere close to the maximum allowed pages (20) and that I'd have to do some serious padding to make it worthwhile. Got to page 17 yesterday afternoon and realized: holy shit, I actually have a LOT left to say and not a whole lot of space left in which to say it. I was fortunately on the last true 'section', save the conclusion, so it wasn't a major crisis, but I did have to laugh a bit ruefully. I can probably edit out some stuff earlier on if need be, or maybe I'll just keep it succinct for the next page and hope for the best. It did bear out my belief from earlier assignments that in many ways, cranking out twenty pages is vastly easier than keeping your thoughts to five.

Anyway, that's why I've been a bit out of pocket lately. I am going to be one happy girl come Wednesday. And by Sunday, potentially one extremely hungover girl.

Katy here -- we met at the SLIS open house back in August.

I had the same experience you did; I sat down and gave myself the task of writing two pages a night over the course of a week and a half to complete my final 20-page paper. And about halfway through, I thought to myself, "Wow, if only I had done this in college instead of writing everything the night before it was due."

Enjoy the break until January! I'm looking forward to nights of reading fun stuff and drinking wine without worrying about having to make another Blackboard post...