Oh catastrophe!

Okay, so maybe catastrophe is a little over the top but I feel like I'm pretty close. I'm supposed to be submitting a paper in 45 minutes. I brought it on my flashdrive to school to print it out only to discover that I didn't actually save it to my flashdrive . . . dum dum dum!! I would be panicking if I weren't so disgusted with my own stupidity. Now, I'm trying to get a hold of my roommate so she can e-mail my paper to me from my laptop. These are moments when I really, and I mean REALLY, wish she didn't always ignore her phone. Let's hope I get a hold of her in time!

Oh, the sweet smell of success

Seriously though, if success had a scent what do you think it would smell of? For me, it would smell of warmth, rich spices, a hint of citrus - preferable oranges, and a dash of vanilla.

So, I finished my MA theses defense about 45 minutes ago and am now officially the holder of a MA in Japan Studies. I was so nervous before and during the defense that I'm having a hard time recalling what I was asked and what I said in response. I'm sure once I've settled back down to normal adrenaline levels I'll remember though.

What next, you ask? Well, now I should finish work for my classes that I'm currently taking . . . however, I've fallen slightly behind in that and have doubts of my being able to turn anything in on time. But I'm not going to let that rain on my parade . . . even though it will perpetuate that gnawing nervous sensation in my stomach for a while until I'm actually finished with everything. Perhaps I should find some sustenance to alleviate the stomach nerves temporarily . . . a digestive distraction, if you will.

Faux is in . . . and that goes for turkey too

As you may have noticed I've sort of disappeared again. It's the end of the quarter, enough said, right? But I couldn't miss out on sharing my Thanksgiving with all of you, because that is the spirit of the holiday is it not? I had intended to spend Turkey Day at home writing a paper, not because I'm a huge procrastinating nerd (is that contradictory?) but because I was scheduled to work at the yarn shop for 3 days of the holiday. So I really needed to get work done. Well, as usually happens in my life, there was a change of plans and I ended up hosting Thanksgiving for a few friends whose original Thanksgiving plans had fallen through.

We were going with a vegetarian menu for the evening including some 'raw food' (as in the raw food movement) dishes. Here's what we had:
Wheat berry salad
Wild rice salad
Roasted vegetables
Faux 'raw food' turkey
Kabocha (Japanese pumpkin) soup
Hawaiian rolls
'Raw' sweet potato pie

Sound tasty? Definitely not your average Thanksgiving spread. It was delightful. I must admit that the faux turkey may not be my first choice for Thanksgiving dinner entree but it wasn't all bad. It was a combination of seeds, nuts, herbs, and celery blended together and then formed (very artistically I might add by dinner guests) into a turkey shape. The way it tasted reminded me of Mediterranean salads, except thrown into a blender. And I would probably have eaten even if it hadn't been the main dish for dinner but the idea of it being faux turkey sort of distracted from the whole eating experience.

Anyway, Happy Thanksgiving . . .

And now back to writing my paper because as you might have guessed this post was a little jaunt down that oh so tempting road of procrastination.

Oh dear . . .

I've really done it this time. Paper due tomorrow, nowhere near done . . . oh pooh. What to do, what to do. How did my procrastination get this bad? Not even that, I feel like my paper writing skills in general have decreased exponentially. It's as though that portion of my brain, the portion with paper writing knowledge stored away in it, took a terrible tumble and is now all bent out of shape past recognition. Will I pull an all-nighter? Ugh. I so don't want to but what else can I do . . .

I can't even stress eat because there isn't any food around. I've been so busy I haven't had time to go grocery shopping. This is my life? How pathetic and sad.

Yes, it's only Tuesday

How is it still only Tuesday?! I feel like I'm coming off a week of Thursdays that never amount to a Friday! There is too much work and too little time . . . I'm drowning in work. Even as I type that though I am in fact procrastinating, oh pooh. I have an entire book to read before tomorrow morning and numerous other articles that need to be read but am I doing any of those things? Of course not. However in the past 5 hours since I got out of class, when I should have been reading, I got all of these things done:

1. Bought my ticket back to Michigan in June
2. Paid 2 bills
3. Made and ate dinner
4. Completed my remaining financial aid paperwork
5. Wrote 2 important e-mails to professors that I'd been putting off for the past week
6. And last but not least my Japanese homework (the most student-like activity and I almost forgot to put it on the list!)

And now it's time to go to bed.

To bed to bed said Sleepyhead,

Let's wait a while said Slow,

Put on the pan said Greedy Nan,

Let's sup before we go.

My grandmother used to say that to me at bedtime when I was a kid and so I say it to you now . . . to bed to bed . . .

Bunnies make me happy

I should be studying for an exam, therefore I am procrastinating and posting . . .
Just a little something that made me laugh. I was using a Japanese to English translation website a while back and when I entered the address for a certain website to be translated, I ended up on a screen with this image:


I burst out laughing, it was so unexpected and so silly. I tried to get back to the same page again but apparently I could only mis-type the web address once. But now that I've found it again, I'd like to share it with all of you because as we all know sharing is caring.

Same old antics

Yet again it is late at night and I am studying madly for an exam that I have tomorrow. I haven't entirely done all the readings for the class and I'm not entirely sure what quality of work my professor is expecting from us all. Under these circumstances you would think that I would take this a little more seriously, but no. All I can think about is the bag of yarn that I got at work today. New projects - that's all that fills my head. For those who are curious, I got some lovely sock yarn and some other colorful yarn to make gloves, one pair as a gift and one pair for myself. I should probably rename this blog Confessions of a Procrastinating Grad Student, it would be much more on the mark. In the meantime though, I'll wait as my poor printer is printing its little heart out and daydream about knitting tomorrow after my exam is done. For now though back to studying for that exam . . .