After almost exactly a year of work, I turned in my dissertation proposal to my committee yesterday. My advisor has already returned it with some suggested changes, but she assures me that it is not because I am a slacker. It is 125 pages after all.
This is all very exciting but also a little overwhelming and perhaps I’m experiencing a small sense of let down. Because of the way I’ve written this paper, it was part of my life throughout 2007. My research plans have changed fairly significantly since January 2007 including my paradigm. I shifted from a constructivist to an interpretivist paradigm in the hopes of being able to at least make some generalizations with my data.
Suddenly, I have some time…enough work to keep me busy during the day, but evenings and weekends provide unstructured time. I’ve been crocheting for charity (mostly baby booties and hats). And reading. I just finished Pontoon by Garrison Keillor. I really liked it but found myself sort of wanting more. The story seemed spare for Keillor; I found myself wanting more of his diversions. This was definitely the story of Evelyn and those close to her rather than a story of Lake Wobegon as a whole. Since I hurt my back, I’ve been feeling very middle aged and just tired. So, I could sympathize with Evelyn’s daughter, Barbara. Except I have a lovely marriage that blesses my life every day.
I picked up The Power and the Glory by Grace MacGowan Cooke yesterday but only got through the introduction. Published in 1909, the subtitle is “A Novel of Appalachia.” I sat in the swing under the oak tree and learned about the author, something of a feisty woman who was very much part of the literary ether of the time, rubbing shoulders with Sinclair Lewis and Robinson Jeffries. The book was made into a movie in 1918.
Most of Cooke’s work is out of print, but this edition was released in 2003 by Northeastern University Press. I was also pleased to discover that it is available via Project Gutenberg. I am planning on spending an hour with it today wrapped in a blanket in front of the fire.
Right now, I’m puttering on the computer, setting up an iGoogle page for a workshop I’m doing at the VSTE conference and listening to great music from WFMU: Laura Cantrell’s Radio Thrift Shop…there is laundry in and I’ve got the ingredients for sweet potato pies on the kitchen table getting soft (butter and frozen sweet potato mash). I’m making pies for dinner tonight. And, later this afternoon, I have a recorder rehearsal. But, I’m pretty sure I can find an hour to read. Maybe even crochet…what DID I do with myself before I started going to graduate school full time?
