ode to procrastination

good god, here I am in the state of procrastination that has plauged so much of my educational career. what am I procrastinating right now? my french homework. it seems that after five years of not studying french I have forgotten how to do so. in addition, this class requires a lot of time for me to fully get the most of out it. so, what does that mean? well, I guess it means that once I've got things sorted with the rest of my schedule (changing class twice in a week means that you don't start the reading as soon as you likely would), I will be getting down to the nitty gritty of french.

that being said, I'm one week into my grad school career. the weight of following this program struck me during my thursday meeting with my advisor. we talked about what I need to do to take my prelims in three years, what I need to do to be a good candidate in the academic market, how my seminar papers will be put in for publication and for conference presentations. whoa. thinking about it is a bit unnerving and exciting, two sensations that, though I crave them, demand a good deal of emotional energy.

so, one week into classes and I've been here for three weeks. matthew is to come to madison this weekend. we haven't seen each other since he moved me up here as he's been in stockholm and copenhagen for a conference and mini holiday. it's been too long for both of us and, despite my best intentions, I began to think back to the beginning of my time in london when pete and I were attempting a long distance relationship. the fear of a similar outcome can only be curbed when I remind myself that madison is much closer to chicago and matt is definitely not pete.

now that I've got that out of my system, I really must get on with this bloody essay. what a girl will do to learn the language that will one day be essential for her research. (and yes, I did just write that. scary.)