Ah, Sunday....

Well, it is a gloomy Sunday morning here in these parts, what with no sunshine (though, on the bright side, it is pretty warm).

Funny thing: when my mom calls me on weekend mornings, we ritualistically discuss the weather. The conversation generally includes some version of the following:

"It's a gray and gloomy day this morning, cloudy."
"Oh, here we've got 'sunshine eye to eye!'"

Now, you may be wondering about what this "sunshine eye to eye" business is all about. My stepdad is from the Middle East, right? Well, this phrase is his invention, which comes out of his modified version of the words to Kajagoogoo's song "Too Shy." Other similar phrases that have entered into our family's lexicon: "Around the world and aye-aye-aye" (answer to how my mother chooses to get from point A to point B in any situation, which comes from the song "All Around the World," Barry White, Lisa Stansfield, Puff Daddy....) and "On the road to Tennessee" (where Stepdad will say he's going if you ever ask him, and I think this comes from the '90s hit "Tennessee" by Arrested Development). Without fail, all of these things amuse me, and my parents, though I am willing to acknowledge that my family and I may be total weirdos.

In other news, I've finished with primary source stuff for my article (rereading, reading, note-taking) and so now it's time to get the critical reading done and the theory ironed out. I'm on the pace that I'd originally laid out for myself - my goal is to be to the drafting stage of things by the end of the month, to use spring break to get a solid nearly final draft, and then to deal with editing in the last two weeks of the month. In exciting news, my library has purchased Refworks, which means that turning everything into Chicago Style will not be the tragedy in my life that it has been on all previous projects (we in the humanities are slow with the technological inventions that ease our lives, and I never got around to getting EndNote). All in all I'm feeling very positive about the whole thing. I feel like it's worth mentioning that had you told me when I was in grad school that I'd be feeling so at ease with this task I would have told you that you were crazy. When I think about the angst that accompanied each seminar paper, each chapter of the dissertation, and my utter lack of confidence that I'd ever be able to get a coherent whole together in polished writing.... well, let's just say that at least for me it's true that the more of this stuff you do the easier it gets. Now, obviously the article may be rejected, but it's nice to feel like I'm capable of producing something that may not be rejected in this beginning stage, and to feel pretty calm about the whole project. I do anticipate, however, that there will be some angsty times ahead, as it's in my personality to stress as things get further along, so it's not like I'm this totally well adjusted scholar or anything - just that there's less up front anxiety than there used to be.

What else? Well, I did my taxes, and I'm ever more pleased about my financial resolutions because I really need to get myself into a position to buy something because while I'm still getting a refund this year, that refund sucks. Ah well, at least I'm still getting a teensy bit of money back. And at least in theory, I'll be able to begin saving for a down payment on something in 2009.

So, on the agenda for today is that I'm going to do some cleaning up around the homestead, and I'm going to make a version of this recipe (though I'm doing some tweaking because I'm just not fussy enough to follow the instructions on Cooking Light recipes and because I'm going to replace the chicken with jalepeno chicken sausage and because I'm going to use more beans.... depending on how it goes I'll post the recipe I actually come up with later). I should also do a writing-related task that I've had on the back burner for months, sort laundry, and do some prep for my classes. All in all, a busy day ahead, but I'm kind of into all of the things that I have on the agenda. The thing I also should do is go to the gym. I *think* I've finally kicked the Evil Cold that Would Not End (though still a bit sniffly sometimes), and I need to recommit to working out. This week I didn't lose or gain any weight, and I think reintegrating working out will get me back on the losing train. I also need to get back to keeping a food diary because I fell off with that, and I think it was good for me to do it. I think I may need to start another one that I keep at the office, though, so that I don't need to remember what I've eaten to record when I go home. I can't be relied upon to carry the thing with me everywhere, and that's where I think I fell out of the habit of doing it.

So, this has been a hodgepodge of a post, hasn't it been? Ah well, not every post can have an actual point, especially on a gloomy and gray Sunday morning :)