P.S. I’m now unemployed.

I don’t know if its the dope or the therapy or the sunshine or the what, but last week, I was able to squeeze out the first bit of academic writing I’ve done in…an embarrassingly long time.

It was only a 250 word abstract, and it was primarily because the conference for which I wrote it is being held in Puerto Rico, but still!  It was directly related to my dissertation, and it might have a whisper of a hint of a notion of a seed of an idea that would be useful to the larger project.

Which I have decided that I have to finish.  Again.  Because…well, because this is all I really ever wanted to do.  Sick and stupid, perhaps, but completely true.  (Well, except for that period of time around the age of 7 where I was committed to both marine biology and primatology.)  I don’t know how I’m going to do it, since I feel like I’m standing in the middle of minefield:  safe for the moment, but afraid to take a step in any direction for fear that I’ll get my “legs” blown off (again).

The “good part” is that I have another project to practice on, so to speak:  an essay for an edited collection that has nothing whatsoever to do with my diss.  Baby steps, training wheels, et cetera.  I am not terribly interested in this project any longer, but there are more reasons to do it than not, and so…check in next week to see if I still have legs.