The life of a graduate student

Thanksgiving? Did that happen in there? Let's see... I spent a week at home so that must mean there was some kind of holiday happening, right?

Kidding, only kind of not. Thanksgiving break for me was 10 drafts of two different papers (one 500 words, one currently somewhere around 17 pages and likely to be longer), 60 pages of French reading, and coming up with a topic for another 500 word paper. While I would say I did get somewhat of a break (I finished a non-academic book I had started THREE WEEKS AGO!), most of my Thanksgiving was just doing work, with the added bonus of being around different people. Admittedly with Christmas music on the radio and a fire in the woodstove so I was nice and toasty warm :)

That's not to say we didn't do a few holiday-ish things. Mom and I watched the parade while cooking dinner, Grandpa came over from the Heritage (and actually ATE STUFF, which was impressive). I made my first ever pecan pie and it came out perfect, so that was exciting. After dinner I was supposed to take the rest of the day off... but I couldn't let myself, so I wrote another draft of one of my papers and THEN took the evening off.

The next morning Mom and I did a ladies' day shopping trip, which we usually do on Black Friday. We don't do all the crowded places though - the busiest place we go is usually JoAnn Fabrics, so yeah. I found lots of pairs of shoes, because with walking to and from school I seem to be wearing out my shoes faster than usual (surprise, surprise lol)

Right now Christmas is pretty up in the air, as far as I know. Granted, I have a lot else on my plate right now so all I really have to do is show up! I'll probably be home for about two weeks, so I'm sure there'll be shopping with Mom and the usual decorating/opening presents/fancy dinner. Grandma's coming from Eastern Ohio so that will be nice. BUT (again, life of a doctoral candidate) I will also be studying to retake the one entrance exam I failed, practicing for my instrument proficiency (if they ever email me back about the repertoire) and looking into/applying to summer internships/fellowships (there's one on archives in England, based in Oxford for an entire month. YES PLEASE!)

I'd better stop there. Can you tell I'm procrastinating three papers and two presentations? lol <3 you girls and I hope we hear from those of you who have gone MIA soon!