This semester I'm taking a writing course which a lot of the time I consider to be a waste of my time, but the professor is great and he has wonderful "motivational" phrases or tidbits of helpful information. One of his things is that we need to not get burned out by graduate school. We need to take time to exercise (something I'm trying to get back into) and we need to spend time doing something other than research.
While Bobby was here we went to Borders to get me a statistics novel of sorts - I know, I'm a nerd! It was actually recommended by the same night professor (who's not a statistics professor) and it's a book of fun historical anecdotes about famous statisticians (a.k.a. it's full of stories that, as a stats person I feel I should be aware of). While there we saw the third book in the Wicked series was on sale for $5 and I can't have the third and not the second, so Bobby bought me that as well. So I walked out with three new books to read! (Don't worry, Bobby bought himself some, too!)
Bobby had bought Charlie St. Cloud several months ago and brought it for me to read and earlier in the week he had bought me the new Nicholas Sparks book, Safe Haven (I LOVE Nicholas Sparks books!). So I now had five books to read! I knew it was going to be a challenge to let myself be okay with reading a novel and not reading research, but I decided I was up for the challenge.
It has been a week and already I have finished Safe Haven and Charlie St. Cloud! On the one hand, yes, these books have kept me from getting some of my work done (I try to only read at night before bed but when there's only 100 pages left, how can I not drop everything and finish it in the middle of an afternoon?!). On the other hand, I feel like I'm more efficient when I'm working. My night professor says to "work when you work but play when you play" and I feel like that is becoming very true in my life right now. Since I'm letting myself "play" by reading and exercising, I'm using my "work" time more efficiently! Why has it taken me soooo many years of grad school to figure this out?! :)
Next semester I'll probably join the Champaign Library (I think the next three books will get me through this semester) so I don't have to keep paying for novels to read. Any ideas of what I should read??? I'm considering re-reading the Harry Potter series - but perhaps I'll do that over Christmas break (think I can read them all in five weeks?).
With that said, I might have to take a break from reading for the next two weeks as deadlines are fast approaching. I need to give a little presentation in a week at a department seminar (nothing big, but I still need to prepare for it), I have a literature review due in a month or so, a research paper due shortly thereafter, and my preliminary examination paper should be done before Christmas break. Although those papers very much overlap, there's still a lot of work that needs to be done (including running a model that I hope works and if it doesn't... well... it might take longer to get everything done). In summary.... my life right now is super busy and boring! :)
Smile: Very much looking forward to my friend Kristel's wedding after Thanksgiving! Not only am I happy for her, I'm thrilled I get to attend a friend's wedding (I've missed a few so far) and I CANNOT wait to see my college girlfriends!
Frown: I'm currently stuck in that state of "Wow! Thanksgiving is only a few weeks away! I get to see Bobby in a few weeks!" and "Oh no! Thanksgiving is only a few weeks away! So much to do so little time!!"
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