I'm a little terrified.
However, unlike last time, I am not only starting before midnight, but I've actually done some of the research beforehand. Which I figure will be a start in the right direction. So here we go.
11:20 - I've written the introduction. It's about a page long, which means I'll probably need to lean more towards the 10 page instead of the 8 pages length. However, I'm at a pretty good stopping point so Stanley and I are going to go put some cookies in the over :)
11:21 - hold the phone...I just learned this version of words has a CITATION MACHINE!!! Holy heck. This will make my paper so much easier!
11:42 - cookies are in the oven. I'm quite excited to bite into those little buggers. We're trying Pillsbury this time, so hopefully it will be better than our last attempt with Tollhouse, which failed.
11:53 - sometimes my boyfriend is really cute. He just brought me down milk and cookies so I could keep writing
12:14 - I was supposed to register for classes tonight at 12:00. However, something is apparently wrong because it's not letting me register. Not only is this frustrating right now because the seats are going in classes I'm needing to take, but it also means I'm going to be spending a chunk of time on the phone tomorrow trying to figure out what's going on. This is not exciting to me.
12:28 - I've almost got 2 pages on the paper. Right now I'm covering her background, though I'm needing to root through my books to find more detailed information. However, it's nice because it means I'm about 1/6 of the way done :)
1:46 - I just arrived safely back from Stanley's house after stopping by the gas station to pick up SmartPop and a Rockstar Lemonade (no carbonation so I'm not technically breaking my commitment for Lent!). Thought about the paper on the way home and am thinking I know what points I want to make which will make writing the paper easier. However, I almost crashed twice because I fell asleep, so I'm going to take an hour long power nap so I'll hopefully be more productive upon awakening. So...see you in an hour...
3:00 - Alrighty, back and (sorta) raring to go! I just talked to Ruth and she explained part of the registration problem might have been a glitch on the administration miscalculating priority registration deadlines
3:14 - Holy heck. I forgot how amazing this SmartPop popcorn is. It's a problem
3:22 - Ha! I just figured out how to add in some great paragraphs about the Troubadors which will not only give my argument context but will add length and quotes as well. Bonus.
3:37 - I really need to learn how to take notes better. I'm recalling information that I've learned from the books I've read but cannot for the life of me remember which books or where the information is located. Which is why I fail at life.
3:41 - Going in for some more RockStar...
3:51 - I'm at about 2.8 pages. Is it bad that I'm feeling rather confident? I feel like I should be more afraid considering I'm only about a third of the way done. However, I am currently listening to Brandi Carlile and feeling oddly focused. That's always encouraging :)
3:55 - I keep having flashbacks to writing papers late into the night last semester when Stanley would be waking up in Spain and I'd be chatting with him to stay awake. Except now he's asleep 40 miles away. Lucky guy
4:12 - I keep getting distracted by this citations thing. I have to focus though. I still have at least 5 pages to go and only 4 hours to write it in
4:14 - I'm a little concerned my thesis is slightly different than the one he approved - namely that it doesn't deal enough with the Crusades. Oh well, I'm analyzing why she went on Crusade and using pre-Crusade information to bolster the argument. That's legit, right?
4:24 - Time to wash my face. I can feel myself fading... But I have hit the over 3 page mark folks!
4:32 - Random fact: this woman I'm writing about not only allegedly had an affair with her Uncle, but also allegedly had an affair with her future father-in-law while married to her second cousin. They're royalty, it's fine, incest is high quality in these cases.
4:40 - some of these names make me giggle. Conrad the Handsome. How'd you like to be his successor and be named something like Richard the Tolerable or Richard the Not-As-Dashing-As-The-Other-Guy-But- I-Guess-We'll-Make-Due? That would be embarrassing, I would think.
4:50 - I'm a slow paper writer. And I think I'm okay with that. As long as I can turn this paper in on time, that is.
4:59 - Done with page 4. About halfway there.
5:02 - Sometimes I do the same things my students do in their papers that I hate. Like use faulty logic and make assumptions that aren't necessarily supported by fact, but possibly could be. Whoops.
5:16 - 4.5 pages. Score
5:27 - I have (at minimum) 3 pages left to go, then putting together a bibliography and filling in empty footnotes. I also, happily enough, have 2.5 more things to expand on, including a few more quotes to throw in there. This makes me happy. It looks like this paper may not suck like a black hole after all. It must just suck like our broken down vacuum.
5:39 - I'm losing steam. I'm not sure how to remedy this. I'm thinking another chug of RockStar... Just 3.5 hours before it's due and 5 hours before I can go to bed! At least 2 pages more to go! I can do it!
5:51 - I'm stable again...however it's not an awake stable, but we should be okay. Hopefully I can wrap up the actual writing in the next hour so I can spend the next few hours writing the bibliography and editing.
6:04 - I'm almost starting on page 8. Meg's called it a night. Pretty sure the only thing keeping me going is that nap I took earlier.
6:11 - yup, I'm really tired. Just sayin'
6:23 - I need to mix something up or I'm going to fall asleep. Time to eat some breakfast with my freshly bought milk and look up some stuff! :)
6:51 - working on filling in the blanks. Hopefully I'll be able to do a bibliography before I go to class so I don't have to haul all those books up there again!
7:06 - the sun is rising! And I may or may not have been distracted by reading a ridiculous thread online about non-Mormons being allowed in the temple for wedding ceremonies. *sheepish grin* Oh, and 2 hours and counting...
7:22 - get ready to head up to campus
7:40 - begin walking...stupid duffel bag of books...
7:54 - starting on footnotes...
8:35 - starting on bibliography...I love the copy and paste method...
8:52 - scrambling to save it to my thumb drive. I have to run to the SWKT and print it off still!!!
9:03 - after dropping my phone and having to hunt down the heavy duty stapler, it is IN!!!
Sometimes I'm pretty cool. Though I'd be a lot cooler if I felt confident about my paper. Sad panda...oh well, I feel like, all things considered, I did a fairly good job. I think I'll reward myself with a nap :)
Toodles!
-Jillian
2 comments:
HA! This was so fun to read! This will be fun to show your kids someday.
And seriously. That citations machine thing has changed my LIFE. I just discovered it this semester. I feel like I still don't really understand how to get the citations to the works cited page in the correct format, but I somehow always end up figuring it out without remembering what I did to get there.
In other news, I'm waiting for a cast list to go up. I hate that.
I love you quite basically. Go you. And don't procrastinate next time.
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