These days

It all starts with how you think.

Source: dangshefine.stockphotosweb.com viaKirsten on Pinterest

I’m never sure what to say when someone asks how things are going. I’ve had trouble figuring out what people want to hear. Do they want to know about my frustrations in my research and writing? Do they want to hear how I slept through the entire weekend? Or that the highlight of my day was froyo? This does not make good conversation. Part of this might be a symptom of conversational deficiencies on either side or the social pressure to wow each other with cosmopolitan adventures. Nevertheless, I’ve been busy despite my fervent belief in this:

Oh well, here’s what I’ve been up to the last couple weeks:

1. I’m still obsessed with the idea of travel or living abroad. I’m slowly making my way through The Best American Travel Writing 2011, edited by Sloane Crosely. I plan on writing a review on Goodreads when I’m finished.

2. I’ve kept up with The Indie Travel Podcast too. I enjoy Craig and Linda Martin’s practical advice, interviews, reviews, and travel stories. I keep adding countries to my “must visit” list because of them.

3. I’m now about 1/3 of the way through A Writer’s March. I’ve written about 15 minutes (sometimes more) each day. So far I have 8 pages single spaced (including A LOT of dense footnotes). I’ve found that once you start working through memory and considering detail, inspiration starts to follow. I find that just sitting down is half the work. Inspiration only comes if you do the work. The more work, the more inspiration. I started out with an idea of what I was writing about, but everyday I’m given a bit of a surprise.

4. And I’m making steady dissertation progress. The inspiration rule applies with this too. I’ve got just over a month to finish up, get everything formatted according to the grad college specifications, and have the final product delivered to my committee. Besides having a defense date, I’ve also decided to march in the May commencement ceremony (though technically I don’t graduate until August). It’s all coming together very quickly and if I don’t think about it too much, then I don’t get overwhelmed by anxiety.

A lot going on. I may be a little crazy, but crazy hasn’t failed me yet.