Dunno what happened to me, but today I wrote FIVE PAGES. All before 8 p.m. (I'm normally just starting to write around that hour.) Granted, they're pretty shitty pages, but at least I'm grinding through text.

This productivity is all the stranger because today has been a miserable day. I slept poorly, waking up several times due to the weather--not so much that it was hot, but because the humidity was making the 100-year-old woodworking creak and pop in weird ways every so often. At least, that's what I've finally concluded it was. I tend to sleep soundly, but I'm jumpy about unusual noises, being as I am always half convinced that there's an axe-murderer hiding in my closet. (In point of fact, he wouldn't fit IN my closet, but I'm alert to noises that suggest he might be trying to wedge himself in there.)

And all day today has been yucky. Around 85 degrees, heavy and oppressive, and periodically getting way humid as thunder rumbled through, only to cool down again, and then get humid again. So I've felt draggy and ill all day, the way you do when you have a cold and everything just feels so-o-o-o-o dif-fi-cult.

But I guess that's how things work in this alternate universe: horrid weather and a bad mood = high page count. And really? I could live with that.

Anyway, I'm up to 40 pages now and I'm nearly through the principal text I'm analyzing, so it'll be time to start revising soon. Problem is, I have a sneaking fear that everything I'm arguing is total bullshit: simultaneously tendentious and unprovable, and not really very interesting if it WERE true. I know it will probably sort itself out eventually, but I don't really have all that much eventually to work with--I've got to get a draft to Fearsome Advisor by the end of the month. I suppose I'm allowed one crap chapter (at this point I've already proven myself to FA and she's as eager for me to have my degree in hand as I am), but I tend to have a hard time moving on from one project to another unless I'm happy with the first one.

Summer To-Do List
(by or before late September)

1. Final, revised 4th chapter
2. Significantly re-written first chapter (maybe 3 weeks of work?)
3. Minor clean-up and revisions to chapters 2 & 3 (2 weeks, tops)
4. Abstract for conference I might want to attend (due July 1)
5. Library research for a side project (rec'd a research grant for all of July, but it won't take that long)
6. Syllabi for fall classes (almost done)
7. Read a couple of the works I'm teaching in the fall (a couple of days)
8. Revised job letter (not a big deal--maybe a weekend project)
9. Small side project completely outside my field (could be put off)
10. Short introduction to dissertation (1 or 2 weeks)

It's all doable, but it really depends on this chapter. If FA doesn't like what I give her, or if I'm not happy with it myself, there's no way I'm submitting my diss for a fall degree. Arrgh.

Okay. Don't panic. Clearly it's time for a drink.