Writing, Because There's No Time Like the Last Minute

So, I'm working on polishing the invited collection article, and I have been doing so since about 5:30 AM. On the one hand, it's going fairly smoothly. On the other, god, why is this end part of things such slow going? I've been dealing with the works cited, primarily, which has been kind of annoying because I've somehow lost MLA style from my brain because my last however many projects were in various versions of Chicago. (I know, I know, use bibliographic software, but I don't trust it, really, because it always seems to fuck things up, and I'm using a lot of weird sources, and I don't tend to be very good about keeping all of my sources in my refworks anyway. I suspect that I will cross the bridge of really using the stuff when I write my next book. For indeed, I'm thinking that I'm going to start a next book project with my sabbatical. But then maybe not. I don't know. I've been doing a lot of background thinking about it, but I haven't really solidified my thoughts yet. I think my primary block about the bibliographic software is that it feels like an extra step, since I take notes longhand.) Anyway, I have high hopes that I'm going to get this final crap knocked out today and that I'll send it off and be done with it.

In other news, I don't really have much other news. I've just been teaching and trying to organize my schedule for the month of July so that I really can take three weeks off when my obligations in July are over. This is going to mean lots of productivity between now and then, though, including drafting 2 versions of a sabbatical application (to help to decide which project I really want to pursue, though I think I am leaning toward another monograph and not toward the textbook idea), working on the catalog copy for our revised major, finishing up odds and ends with research stuff, initial planning stuff (mainly a timeline) for the conference that I'm going to host in the somewhat distant future, stuff for the professional society of which I am president, getting stuff in PDF form and up onto blackboard for my new grad class, cleaning my office at work, and doing my two remaining syllabi. The idea here is that if I do all of this I shall really be able to relax through most of August, and I shall start the new semester in fine form.

I suppose I should be proud of myself that I've done about 2 1/2 solid hours of work already today, but I'm feeling a bit overwhelmed and like I'll never get all of my things done. Ah well. I will get all of my things done, and then I won't feel overwhelmed anymore. Annoyingly, I've also got to do some grading today, but I plan to confine that to the hour or two before class starts.

So anyway, that's the boring update from the land of Work.