How Did I Get Here?

Late. Not really late, not midnight yet, but late enough considering I'm going to be up and at the world in less than six hours. I don't usually sleep much more than six hours per night, except maybe on the weekends, but even then not much more.

Late enough that when you're wandering the internets looking for knitting patterns instead of figuring out what your thesis statement is for this little paper that's actually due today but for which you have a one-week extension, you know it's time to close Laptop and go to bed. Read The Enchantress of Florence for a while, leave Gregory VII and his crazy controversies for tomorrow.

Except that tomorrow you go to work and then in the evening you go to knit prayer shawls. No, you don't have to go and knit, but you will. Tuesday night you go over to a parish not your own to act as sponsor for your niece in the RCIA program (no, not the Roman Catholic Intelligence Agency). Wednesday night you're begging off St. Vincent de Paul, not because you don't want to be involved, but because you are stretched too thin right now, and you know it. Your work is suffering, your house is a disaster, and quite frankly you don't even know if you'll have a job in January or not. No one else knows either, because it's grant time and your existence in the department isn't of primary importance.

It's not a big deal, it's the way things flow. Whenever I get asked the, "Where do you see yourself in five years?" question, I'm a deer in the headlights. Five years? I don't even see myself in five days! I'm not the planning type. I'm much more the "make no decision until a decision is necessary" sort of a person. This sounds like procrastination, but it's not, (because I am a master of procrastination, and this ain't it) instead it's waiting for the right time to make the decision. New information is always coming available, and when enough information is at hand, a decision can be made. Not before. So right now, to my knowledge, I don't have a job in January, even though I've been told that I probably do.

So where was I? writing a paper? It's mostly written, I'm editing now but the edits are rather major. Not that I need a lot of writing, but I need filling in, I need linking sentences, I need to refer back to the elusive thesis statement, and I need to get this thing off my computer. I don't know when I'll do it, but it won't be tonight. I do have a week extension, by virtue of the fact that I got bored with my English test prior to starting this course, and got awarded with a writing coach. If I had spent more time on the test, I wouldn't have had this advantage, and it is an advantage. It's like free editing, free advice on the pitfalls of your writing. I don't need an editor for grammar or punctuation (except that the referencing styles for social sciences are completely different than those for chemistry, which depend on journal type: ACS or ECS - American or European chemical societies, or by publisher: Elsevier vs Wile vs...? whomever. It comes down to the journal to which you're submitting the paper, and consistency. It's not better, it's just what I'm used to and therefore it's easier for me. I can't use it here.) but I need an editor to do the dirty work of the paper. Since I'm inherently lazy this is perfect for me.

No, really. I'm lazy. I do a lot of stuff so I don't have to clean the house, as an example of the lazy.

Anyway, it's late. I wonder how did I get here? and if my ticket is good for a return trip.