15 days from now I will be on a plane flying from Baltimore, MD to San Francisco, CA.
I'm super duper excited for this work trip that will double as a girls' escape from reality with two best friends from college. I'm really lucky to have this opportunity to co-present in CA as the professor I'm working with there is a wonderful mentor and I've learned a lot working with her. I'm also excited to present at my last conference for this academic school year as well.
It has been hard to not focus on the upcoming trip to CA since there is so much that needs done in NC before I depart from this state in a mere 14 days.
First off, I need to submit my proposal to a conference that will be held in Philadelphia next year. It's amazing how difficult it is to get a proposal about my dissertation down to just 500 words. I spent two hours last night trimming the proposal from 951 words to 500. This morning, after some changes were made, I'm still over the 500 word limit so back to the drawing board I go. Hopefully once I have the draft of the proposal completed, I'll not have any issues with submitting it online. I remember that when I submitted my group's proposal last year, I had some kinks with the online system...yikes!
Then, I need to plan the 2nd Annual Women's Retreat Weekend in Dover, DE. While this is a fun event, it takes a lot of coordinating/planning that I don't have time to do just yet. Folks have been asking for details, which is good, so I hope to have some of the details worked out by mid April.
Next, I need to pack for not only CA but also my stay in PA while I carry out the dissertation study in May. Once I leave these state lines, my focus is on dissertation and dissertation only so I apologize, in advance, to my colleagues I'm working with on other things...ha!
Upon my return to NC, my time will continue to be limited as it's back to babysitting every other week (this will be my 6th summer of doing this!!) and squeezing in the research that is in progress as well as continuing to work on dissertation research during my "off" weeks. It is such a relief to think that the outside math and reading projects from last year and this year will be wrapping up soon....while it's a bit nerving to think that a new history project will resurface from last spring in addition to plugging away at two other projects that my colleagues and I have been working on for three years. I'm really excited about our work for one of the projects and know we all four will be very proud of the end result.
If I learned nothing else over the last couple years, it's that things will get done in their own time....quality is better than quantity in my opinion!! I just hope that we will be able to get the work done in spite of very different timelines, schedules, & working styles. These experiences, however, are teaching me that I need to scale back and not put forth 100% into what I'm doing in certain situations (as a certain York Mom has been telling me all along). In addition to perceived realitites and disparate working styles/personalities, other obstacles will appear and sometimes you just have to pull back and grin and bear it! I think that developing a thicker skin will also be helpful in trying to not take things so personally too...especially when viewing teaching evaluations or perceiving someone's comments to you that were made out of stress as being personally directed toward you.
While my month away from NC spent on conference work, dissertation work, and a few social things planned with friends, will just FLY BY....there are quite a few events/committments that are occurring between tonight and Thursday morning when I load up the Vibe and get out of town on 04/25, which is all the more reason why I need to get the big items crossed off my to-do list above....so that I can further enjoy the smaller items listed below:
Grasshoppers game
last session of Theology on Tap
Award Ceremony
Reception Brunch
Ignited by Truth Conference in Raleigh
Teach 2 classes for my advisor
Zumbaaaaa
my GA work
Department Social at a local park
my nephew's 2nd birthday party
my youngest NC nephew's baptism
family time
Paint Party
babysitting
meetings
and.....
oh yeah, that storm cloud that keeps hovering over my horizon that is better known as my dissertation defense proposal meeting. Wish me luck!!
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