I think the majority of my early productivity in graduate school was fueled by guilt. During the second semester of the first year of my Ph.D. program, I was done with classes for the week on Wednesday at, like, 7 or 7:30 PM-ish. Four-day weekends! Party, right? Wrong. I worked like a dog, never harder than those free Thursdays and Fridays when, after a couple of hours at the university gym, I would come home and translate Sanskrit (as well as do my class readings) like a maniac. I usually took Saturday off to hang out with my highly unsuitable boyfriend of the time, and would return to work on Sundays. And it was all because of guilt: I couldn't possibly have a four-day weekend! I had to be doing something wrong! I better do more Sanskrit... This is how I got a reputation of being over-prepared for Sanskrit class - a reputation that followed me across an ocean and several years, one that my advisor remembered again this year in Hamburg.
Yeah, I have issues.
So now you find me, paralyzed with guilt on a Monday evening because...? I didn't bring any work home. And, legitimately, I didn't have any to bring home. But I feel far too idle and I have this niggling sense of guilt, or worse, that I've forgotten something vital. So I didn't have any work! Couldn't I have gone to the gym? Walked around the lake? Done something active and healthy for my unborn child?! No, instead I came home and ate a snack. The angels are weeping.
So, I'm not adjusting all that well to having a lighter workload than I'm used to, but I'm hoping that I'll get over that. And I doubt it'll last, anyway...
So now that you have a better insight into the darker workings of my psyche, let's turn to important things, such as clothes! Because the weather was pre-autumnal - cool, but sunny and welcoming - I decided to continue to rock the bare legs until the last moment. I also decided to try out another one of my non-maternity jersey dresses to see if what I suspected was true: yup! Stretchy empire-waist jersey is a pregnant lady's best friend, even after hitting the 23rd week!
Yeah, I have issues.
So now you find me, paralyzed with guilt on a Monday evening because...? I didn't bring any work home. And, legitimately, I didn't have any to bring home. But I feel far too idle and I have this niggling sense of guilt, or worse, that I've forgotten something vital. So I didn't have any work! Couldn't I have gone to the gym? Walked around the lake? Done something active and healthy for my unborn child?! No, instead I came home and ate a snack. The angels are weeping.
So, I'm not adjusting all that well to having a lighter workload than I'm used to, but I'm hoping that I'll get over that. And I doubt it'll last, anyway...
So now that you have a better insight into the darker workings of my psyche, let's turn to important things, such as clothes! Because the weather was pre-autumnal - cool, but sunny and welcoming - I decided to continue to rock the bare legs until the last moment. I also decided to try out another one of my non-maternity jersey dresses to see if what I suspected was true: yup! Stretchy empire-waist jersey is a pregnant lady's best friend, even after hitting the 23rd week!
Hunched and tenderly watching Amalía destroy her scratching post
In fact, with the sweater on, you can't really tell that I'm sporting a pretty respectable belly back there! But anyway, this dress fit my purposes admirably, although I sort of missed wearing tights in the morning: they would've been nice and comfy for the walk to and from the earlier class. But by the afternoon, I was just fine with just the cardigan.
Now she's a super-hero!
In other news, my hair is going through the phase of a million cowlicks. I have weird tufts protruding from all over my crown and I can't tell why. You can see a slight unevenness in the first photo. That being said, I've pretty much decided to restart the long, arduous process of growing out my hair again, mostly because I can't foresee me having the time, energy, and budget to get my hair freshly cut every six weeks or so. I think my plan for right now is to let it get to maximum awkwardness before asking my stylist to do something with it.
... Fortunately, I work in such an artsy environment that the kids will probably think I'm making some sort of "statement" ... maybe I should dye it green?
Charcoal cardigan: Gap, remixed
Green dress: Gap, remixed
Olive modesty top: Express, remixed
Mustard flats: Nine West, by way of DSW, remixed
Oh man, I SO wish that was my problem. No, instead, I'm just lazy. Just. Lazy.
ReplyDeleteAlso, I love the outfit. Yay for comfy cozy jersey! And I feel ya on the cowlicks. I went through a hell of a cowlick phase a few months ago; it's only just now wearing off.
It is 9:25pm. I have been up since 6am and working on something since I got up with an hour break to shower, take Bailey to daycare, and go to the chiropractor, and another break to bike to campus and then to return. Yet I feel guilty right now for reading blogs instead of working on a report.
ReplyDeleteJersey is the best!
Hey, Dr. Boots, a Sanskrit-related question for you. (Did you ever expect to find one in the comments section on your style blog?) I'm a nonspecialist working on a project about the imagination in South India, and I've encountered a few isolated uses of the radical (square root) sign before a word. I'm wondering if the radical sign is commonly used in Sanskrit studies to indicate a root word. For example, I see phrases such as "the root /bhu" (imagine that / is the radical sign and there's a macron over the u), "its causative derivative /bhavaya" (macron over the first a), "/vid," and "/jna" (with a tilde over the n and a macron over the a), but also usages such as "the root murch" (macron over the u), with no radical sign. I was wondering if you could tell me very briefly if this is a common usage in Sanskrit studies; otherwise I may be dealing with a weird typographical glitch. Many, many thanks!
ReplyDeleteClare, I want to BECOME lazy without guilt! At least I'm bringing work home tonight, so...yay?
ReplyDeleteRaquelita, see, you sound so depressingly PRODUCTIVE! Argh! I should relearn how to ride a bike!
Sue, you made my day to the point that I'm commenting back from work. So that radical sign is totally normal and means that it's a verbal root (root of a verb?). You'll see this usage a lot. I hope that's helpful! E-mail me if you want something more detailed!
Thank you--that's exactly what I needed to know. (Now, another part of me wonders why only verbal roots get marked. And why did that practice develop in Sanskritology? Et cetera, et cetera. But those sorts of musings would lead me too far astray, and I've got a deadline for this project that will keep me up way too late tonight, argh.)
ReplyDeleteThe Internet is often depressingly rife with misinformation, hate, rushes to judgment, and other things that are far from benign. But it also makes it possible for me to get in touch with a Sanskrit scholar (one with a sense of humor, plus killer taste in boots--and how many Sanskrit scholars can you say that about?) all the way at the other end of the state. That's pretty darn marvelous, and something to be grateful for.
I feel that way too. Sometimes I work from home and just don't have work to do, so I find things to busy myself, because I certainly couldn't just watch TV while waiting for a work email or IM to come along, could I? I do the same thing on weekends a lot too. It's sad.
ReplyDeleteLove the color of this dress!