After almost exactly a year of work, I turned in my dissertation proposal to my committee yesterday.\u00a0 My advisor has already returned it with some suggested changes, but she assures me that it is not because I am a slacker.\u00a0 It is 125 pages after all.<\/p>\n
This is all very exciting but also a little overwhelming and perhaps I’m experiencing a small sense of let down.\u00a0 Because of the way I’ve written this paper, it was part of my life throughout 2007.\u00a0 My research plans have changed fairly significantly since January 2007 including my paradigm.\u00a0 I shifted from a constructivist to an interpretivist paradigm in the hopes of being able to at least make some generalizations with my data.<\/p>\n
Suddenly, I have some time…enough work to keep me busy during the day, but evenings and weekends provide unstructured time.\u00a0 I’ve been crocheting for charity (mostly baby booties and hats).\u00a0 And reading. I just finished Pontoon by Garrison Keillor<\/a>.\u00a0 I really liked it but found myself sort of wanting more.\u00a0 The story seemed spare for Keillor; I found myself wanting more of his diversions.\u00a0 This was definitely the story of Evelyn and those close to her rather than a story of Lake Wobegon as a whole.\u00a0 Since I hurt my back, I’ve been feeling very middle aged and just tired.\u00a0 So, I could sympathize with Evelyn’s daughter, Barbara.\u00a0 Except I have a lovely marriage that blesses my life every day.<\/p>\n I picked up The Power and the Glory by Grace MacGowan Cooke<\/a> yesterday but only got through the introduction.\u00a0 Published in 1909, the subtitle is “A Novel of Appalachia.”\u00a0 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\u00a0 Robinson Jeffries.\u00a0 The book was made into a movie in 1918.<\/p>\n Most of Cooke’s work is out of print, but this edition was released in 2003 by Northeastern University Press.\u00a0 I was also pleased to discover that it is available via Project Gutenberg.<\/a> I am planning on spending an hour with it today wrapped in a blanket in front of the fire.<\/p>\n Right now, I’m puttering on the computer, setting up an iGoogle page for a workshop I’m doing at the VSTE<\/a> conference and listening to great music from WFMU: Laura Cantrell’s Radio Thrift Shop<\/a>…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).\u00a0 I’m making pies for dinner tonight.\u00a0 And, later this afternoon, I have a recorder rehearsal.\u00a0 But, I’m pretty sure I can find an hour to read.\u00a0 Maybe even crochet…what DID I do with myself before I started going to graduate school full time?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" After almost exactly a year of work, I turned in my dissertation proposal to my committee yesterday.\u00a0 My advisor has already returned it with some suggested changes, but she assures me that it is not because I am a slacker.\u00a0 It is 125 pages after all. This is all very \u2026 Continue reading