Let me apologize upfront about the whining nature of this post. It is that time of the semester when everything comes together in one big clusterfuck.
Per Dr. Koshary's advice last post, I am attempting to get on these administration problems and not leave them to chance. I emailed my Grad Director again this past Monday saying as politely as I could, "Hey, what's up? Remember when I asked you about all those things? What's going on with that?" No response. None. I have never had trouble with emailing him/her before, so I don't know what to do. I know Dr. K advise that I drop by his/her office, but the office is in this labyrinth protected by receptionists and whatnot. Trying to set up an appointment to see him/her is nearly impossible, especially at this time in the semester. I guess I can just go sit outside of the office until he/she agrees to see me, but that seems a little desperate. A phone call? Another email? A carrier pigeon?
To push my anxiety level even further, the Grad Director sent us all an email (so I know that he/she has been in his/her email account) to basically say, "Remember that you should not waste a single minute on anything else but getting published. Have a nice end of the semester."
And final seminar papers are due veerrrrryyyy soon. I am freaking out about one because though I have pages and pages, there does not seem to be a very cogent argument. This is a problem. Usually I can write through this issue and discover an argument, but right now the paper seems to be a collection of rambling paragraphs and explanation of quotes. Ugh. And I'm supposed to go to a bachelorette party this weekend. I have no idea what I said yes to this months ago knowing how close to the end of the semester it is. And it's one of those annoying functions where it is supposed to be an all night affair and is far away enough that it is pretty pointless to drive all the way their for an hour or whatever and drive all the way home. I'm thinking of skipping it. That would be the responsible thing to do. Of course, I will feel incredibly guilty, but I will also feel incredibly guilty knowing that this paper is just sitting on my computer at home.
I'm also feeling pretty guilty for being the worst blogger recently. I have not been keeping up with it or reading other blogs, and I'm feeling more guilty than I should about this.
And I'm annoyed with how many times I'm using "and" in this post, but this is the way of the mind right now.
I also just ate a sandwich with expired mayonnaise. I think I'll be fine. It expired in October, but everything else seemed fine. I'll be fine, right?
You'll be fine, I think. Please tell me, though, that you *threw away* the expired mayonnaise after that.
ReplyDeleteMy advice for Grad Director:
Step 1: Phone call.
Step 2: Carrier pigeon (may be hard to find this time of year).
Step 3: Go to the office. Tell receptionist/guard dog that you want to speak with Grad Director for just two minutes if zi is free. You will be told that this may not happen for a while, but you can make an appointment. Make one. Then, tell recept/dog sweetly, "I have a few minutes to kill. If you think zi will be out of that meeting/private moment soon, I might just wait here to catch hir as zi runs to class/squash game/masseur." They will not like this, but they can't tell you to leave, either. Try it out, knowing that you may fail. Bring something useful to do in the meantime. When GD appears, TACKLE HIR.
I hope you're feeling better. That was an insane email, btw, to be sent to grad students...hugs!
ReplyDeleteAnd don't worry about blogging -- do it when you can. We're all kinda in that boat, esp. at end of term. No stress! Just happy happy fun blogland!