Saturday, December 26, 2009

T'was the Day after Christmas

And I am doing very little. Actually Absurdist Tot is in some kind of growth spurt where he's eating a lot, so I only just now got to duck to the kitchen. Right now, he's playing with the toys we found, very luckily, at a second hand kid's place close to our house. So he's had a lovely Christmas with four new presents at this very moment making lots of sounds.

For Christmas dinner, I made a roast and Yorkshire pudding, which I'd never made. Absurdist Lover wants me to make Yorkshire pudding all the time, but of course if you don't make it with drippings, then it's just oil and not as flavorful; that said, I think I'll be making it often this winter.

In the back of my mind is this article due for consideration in a special issue of a journal that I proposed a while back. The editors say they are interested in seeing the whole thing, but as always my article feels like only like a partial fit for their theme -- and it's hard to make myself work on it. The work I'd shape to fit the theme is my dissertation work -- work that should really be out there on its own two feet. I keep trying to fit it into special issues and themes and things rather than just shape it for a journal and get it out there. There's actually another collection to propose another version to. Both are due by the end of the year, which is now less than a week away.

I've been thinking about the new year and goals and such. I need to make sure that this first year on the tenure track is not a total waste, no matter how much everyone says that research typically goes by the wayside. I am going to have to show what I'm up to for an annual review, so I better get something done. I've been thinking that maybe I'll go ahead and try to write through some terrible first drafts of articles I need to write -- just write fast and furious, like Stephen King advocates. Just outrun the damn censor! Also, I want to go ahead and get some creative work done, which is less important for tenure and all that but counts for something and, more important, would be great for my brain -- great for me to remember that I am a writer as well as everything else.

But today it doesn't look like anything is going to get done. Absurdist Tot needs to start getting up earlier so he doesn't go to bed as late (around 11:30pm!). So that's another project I have to get on. I think this weekend I'm just going to be lazy -- and start everything in earnest (partial earnest) on Monday.

I hope everyone had a merry holiday!

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