Post-Proposal Meeting

Well, the dissertation proposal has been officially approved!! My committe was wonderfully supportive and excited about my topic. As one member stated aptly, "I feel like we keep having this conversation." My committee members interrogated my ideas and pointed to a lot of areas where I need to nail things down, some things I definitely knew, some things I had not thought about at all. I am extremely blessed to have committee members who are critical in the most intellectual sense of the word. Each of them has pointed to the size of the project at one point or another, but no one ventured to suggest cutting something. They seem to be in agreement that I have selected interesting subjects for study and that the project has the potential to make important contributions to our field.

So I should feel good right? So much to do, so little time--that' s the bottom line. The only thing I feel right now is overwhelmed. Fortunately, I'm going on vacation. I have been really pushing myself this year to get to this point--I need a serious retreat to get me energized for this last climb. When I get back, I'll be back on the grind--one day at a time until it's done.

Proposal Eve

Four years ago this week, I moved up here to begin graduate school. That just blows me away. July 1, 2001 I started my first big university job--research assistant. A soon to be MA student, I was clueless about the journey I was beginning, but I was fascinated and excited about the possibilities. Oh to be there again. The novelty of academe has definitely worn off. But I'm still excited about my research and ready to go, go, go. In a few hours, I'll be defending my dissertation proposal. I think it's finally sinking in--the ABD thing. I didn't understand why everyone kept asking my after my exams if it had sunk in yet. I kept saying yes because the four days of writing and oral defense were intense; I was relieved to make it through. I felt like I had passed THE test and that I was almost in "the club." But now it's really sinking in--I'm only ABD. There is a tremendous weight on those three letters for me right now--A B D. They should call it AGE--Almost Good Enough. (Mental note: write a post about age and academe one of these days). So yes, it has officially sunk in. Every thing I've made it through in these four years is ALL good, BUT none of it means anything until I knock out this DISSERTATION. (DUH). Four years ago, this moment was complete fiction--it did not exist in my mind. It was a dream. It was a nice aspiration, but it had no connection to my reality of being fresh out of undergrad. And besides, I never really thought I would stay here this long. But now, here I am, sitting (when I should be sleeping) in the hours before the big proposal meeting. Very overwhelming.

Prior to this completely overwhelming feeling, I was packing. And prior to packing, I spent the day shopping for a way around the $700 estimate the mechanic quoted me to get my 1990 four wheels and some metal down the highway to the South. So actually, the feeling of being overwhelmed has been hanging over me like Savannah moss all day. My plans to be home on Thursday are now up in the air since the place I found to fix my car (for $150 plus labor) can't do it until Thursday morning. Sigh. It wouldn't be a big deal if I didn't need to be in Florida on Saturday (not in my car but still driving). I wasn't really trying to drive the entire East Coast in 24 hours, but it is starting to look that way.

But, there were two bright spots to the day. 1) I got some work done on revising an article for publication. Only catch is that I came up with a way to make the argument more compelling which is going to require more rewriting and reorganizing. (Mental note #2: write a post about age and publication) 2) I saw Stevie Wonder dance tonight. So despite being very overwhelmed--I guess everything seems a little more possible when you see Stevie Wonder do a choreographed routine on national television.

Proposal updates to come this evening..stay tuned....

Packing Day

Today was a productive day of packing and cleaning--still more to do, but progress nonetheless.

Tomorrow, I need to take the car in for service, so I may bring the laptop to do some writing.

I may.

Getting Motivated--Dr. Condoleezza Rice

After a most productive week, I did nothing all weekend. I finished grading and submitted my final grades for the session today. So my ties to teaching here are officially completed. But beyond that, I did very little other than laying around the house, watching movies, talking on the phone, and eating. I thought about packing a lot more than I actually packed. I did do a little purging, but my efforts were minimal at best. I may still accomplish some things on that front this evening. I do want to finish up packing my office.

My mind has been on auto-pilot so I was hoping to take this moment to think about work for a moment. It's time to motivate. My dissertation project begins with an introduction to Condoleezza Rice, and although I've done a lot of work on African-American women, I haven't written anything yet on Dr. Rice. My intention in writing about her for my dissertation is not to dissect her politics. Rather, I want to analyze how she has been constructed in the press as an African-American woman, as well as investigate what (if any) rhetorical strategies she has used which combat (or reinforce) these images. I am thinking about opening my dissertation with a discussion of the article "Condolezza Rice's Commanding Clothes" in the Washington Post. Traditional readings of women and political communication have long noted that attention to clothing and attire is more of an issue for women than for men in politics. News coverage has always described women politicians in terms of their appearance (hair, dress, looks), martial status, or children disproporationately to men in politics--it is not news that we get this long article on Rice's attire in a nationally recognized news outlet. But most scholarly conversations about dress and politics do not look at persons of color. So I think it will be useful for me in my dissertation to contribute to my field by demonstrated the ways in which the combination of race AND gender shape the way a woman might be portrayed in public. As a number of Black women scholars (Patricia Hill Collins, Deborah Gray White, Audrey Edwards) have noted, there are historical images of Black women that contemporary women must compete with. Many of these images revolve around sexuality, including:

• The hypersexualized Jezebel: From the tempting mulatto slave woman to the fantasized MTV Video Vixen
• The asexual mammy: Rooted in images of the nurturing Southern woman, perpetuated in continuing images of Black women in supporting roles on TV and film who always give care to the main character but without being shown to have a life of her own
• The dominant matriarch: Fed into by both sociology and media--Images of Black women as bossy, aggressive, and emasculating

What intrigues me about this article, and others that I have seen on Rice, is that it fuses many of these images. More importantly, it keeps sexuality at the forefront--Black women's sexuality has always been open for conversation, spectatorship, and debate (If you haven't seen it, take a look at the film The Life of Sara Baartman: The Venus Hottentot). Black women's sexuality was historically (and arguably still is) public property; a huge difference from White women's sexuality which was to be chaste, hidden, and private (also problematic). In this case Rice's choice of attire is not just read in terms of the Matrix or style, but with an emphasis on dominance and sexuality. Concerned Women for America, rightly expressed anger at the racist and sexist nature of this article, but I think wrongly linked this to a partisan slight. Black women have longed been reduced to cariactiture images on both sides of the aisle, and knowing more about the history of Black women would reveal that political ideology has very little to do with how Black women are constructed in the eye of the American public and across the world. (Racism and sexism exists in both blue and red states--a post for another day). I hope that providing my readers with a more in-depth background of the images of Black women will provide for a richer reading of the political context that Rice (and the other women in my study) face outside of just partisan politics.

The more I think about this, the more I think I will use this moment to introduce the project. I have been planning to start with Condoleeza Rice, but was searching for an avenue--I think this just may be it. Gotta do some more reading and writing on it...

Best Last Day Ever!!

As a student, I always enjoy the last day of a semester. Always. I still remember with great fondness the feeling I had on December 15, 2004--the day I turned in my last seminar paper for the last graduate class I would ever have to take. Just knowing that I would never have to sit in a desk as a student again sent me skipping down the hallway (in my mind only--in real life, I don't skip, jog, or run in any situation that is not life threatening). But back to the point. I always enjoyed the last day as a student, but as an instructor, I haven't been that fond of the last day. Students don't come to class--they send in final work by their friends or through unsolicited emails. They put the minimal effort into their final speeches and they extremely restless and easily annoyed. Plus, I never know what to say on the last day. Like most of my public speaking students--I'm terrible with conclusions and have to strongly fight the urge to say--well, that's it.

But everything changed today. Today, I came to appreciate the beauty of the last day for the teacher. Today, I had a beautiful conclusion that generated thoughtful insights, laughter, and warm goodbyes. Today, I was freed from the binds of departmentally engineered courses, assignments, and syllabi. Today, I taught my last class as a Graduate Student Instructor. It's definitely the most beautiful last day ever.

Of Course, there's still grading (ugh) ,but I want to be done with it by the time I go to bed tonight. So I am neglecting my research for the afternoon for a marathon of grading. That way I'll have the rest of the weekend to pack and do some writing--and to start thinking about my proposal defense next week.

So all in all, I got to say it was a good day...

And I Forgot I'm Movin

I don't know. Maybe I thought all this stuff would move itself. Just magically appear in Southern State on its own. Or maybe I was seriously deliberating my friend's idea to just leave it all here.... Definitely have been productive with researching and grading, but moving--not so much. So today is a moving day. I did do a little newspaper digging for the mysterious Ms. Lelia (Smith-Foley-Davis) and I'm more confused than ever about her biography, but more familiar with her politics. Interesting stuff. But the goal for today is to finish purging the stuff out of my place that I am not taking home. I'm selling all my big furniture and it should be out of here by the end of the evening. That'll leave me with a few things in my office and bedroom to pack up. The big project that hasn't been touched yet--the kitchen. Sigh. Can I save that for the weekend please???

Detective Work

I like mysteries--I love puzzles. But I hate when I can't find something--especially if I should know where it is. I finished up doing some research today on Eva Clayton. I am very proud of myself for sticking to my goal for the week and doing research in the library. Since I was having such a productive time working on Clayton, I thought I would also begin research on my third subject, Lelia Smith. Lelia Smith has been a challenge since I took on this assignment. I knew that she was the first Black female mayor, from the state of Oklahoma and that was pretty much it. I've since come to realize that I don't know her name. Well I do now (I think), but I didn't (maybe still don't). I've seen her listed as Lelia Smith, Lelia Davis, and Lelia Foley. She has not been written on by anyone that I can tell--she doesn't appear in any encyclopedias or books on African-American women that I can find. So today was a detective day--one of those things I love to hate about research. What I am learning about myself is that I'd much rather solve mysteries about historical figures--that's what digging around in archives is all about--I love that process of "unearthing" figures hidden in the past. But man am I starting to loathe looking around rocks for someone who is still living and (apparently) still active in politics. So it has taken some work on my part but I think I have some good leads on Lelia Smith-Davis (still don't know where this Foley part came from). Even found a potential mailing address.

Lesson for today--if you are looking for someone notable, living, yet unknown--might want to try Who's Who--they are professional stalkers apparently.

So with a small sense of accomplishment, I'm going to call it a day--head home--eat and grade some more exciting speeches....

Chapter Two Was Born

Finally was able to sleep around 530 this mornin, but unfortunately much of the day I was tired and sick--went to teach my class feeling like I might fall out at any moment. As a result, I didn't stay on campus to research Eva Clayton more so I'll have to do that tomorrow. But the day wasn't completely unproductive--today chapter two of my dissertation was born. Chapter two (proposes to) looks at the overall rhetorical history of African-American women in politics. Very little work has been done that traces African-American women's political activity from slavery to the present--the work that I know in this area is from a political scientist's perspective. I'm interested in the rhetorical arguments that compelled/explained/accompanied this activity. So I wrote two pages on trends and transformations in the rhetorical arguments of African-American women in politics. It was an unexpected moment--the idea of how I might want to start chapter two came to me in the car on my way home from class. So I am very proud of myself for 1) not forgetting and 2) forcing myself to sit down and write it out and spend some time thinking about the possible organization from the chapter. I'll know after the proposal meeting how much more I need to work with it to create Chapter one and will be able to run right into writing Chapter two. Likely, I'll be working on both at the same time. I am not extremely linear when I write--right now my dissertation is not organized concretely--the chapters have been numbered according to which topics I want to write on first (determined by my previous knowledge and/or need to go to certain archives at times that don't conflict with my conference schedule). So for now I feel like I've bitten off a chunk I can handle--chapters one and two will be my focus between now and the end of July....

Y Bloggin Is Gonna Be Bad 4 Me

It gives me the illusion of being productive...

I'm bloggin about bloggin already y'all...

Eva Clayton

Today’s goal is to research former Representative Clayton. It’s 4 AM and I can’t sleep, so why not do a little digging around on the Internet before I hit the library later. My intial interest in Clayton came from knowing that she served in the House representing North Carolina and was the first Black woman elected to the House in North Carolina. In 1992, she became one of two African Americans to be elected in NC since 1901. Clayton, like a number of minority representatives, came into office in 1992 when districts were redrawn (following the 1990 census) to provide more adequate representation for minority groups. Immediately, Congress became its most diverse in history and immediately, lawsuits were filed in federal district courts across the nation stating that the new districts were unconstitutional. This issue hit hardest in the South where some Black communities had Black representation for the first time since Reconstruction. Over several years following the 1992 election, federal courts found the new districts to be unconstitutional and ordered the states to set to work to redraw the districts. The case of North Carolina resulted in a split decision at the federal district level, so the case was taken to the Supreme Court. In Shaw v Reno, “Justice Sandra Day O'Connor wrote for the Court majority that any map that groups people ‘who may have little in common with one another but the color of their skin bears an uncomfortable resemblance to political apartheid.’”[1] North Carolina soon joined Florida, Georgia, and Louisiana on the growing list of states that had to redraw their districts again.

So where did Representative Clayton fit into this fray? What were her major agenda issues while in office? What brought an end to her 10 year legislative run in 2004? Those are my questions for research later today—after I teach and get a nap….


[1] Reapportionment and redistricting. (1999). In D. R. Tarr, & A. O'Connor (Eds.), Congress a to z. Washington: CQ Press. Retrieved June 21, 2005, from CQ Electronic Library, CQ Congress Collection, http://library.cqpress.com/congress/cr050800. Document ID: cr050800.

Research Gem (Rhetoric, Silence, Silencing)

Part of the work of making myself write is that I’m trying to broaden my knowledge of women in elected politics, as most of my research has been in nontraditional forms of politics (slave resistance, abolition, educational reform, anti-lynching etc.) So I am working on sketches of various women in politics (which will soon become my contributions for a forthcoming encyclopedia). Today, I researched US Representative Corrine Brown (D-Fl). Representative Brown has been very vocal regarding the 2000 presidential election and has expressed on numerous occassions that she felt her constiutents were robbed of their votes. What I didn’t know until today was that in 2004, Brown said something to this effect on the House floor—a comment resulting in her words being stricken from the record and her mouth being “shushed” for the day on the grounds of unparliamentary behavior. The specific comment was:

I come from Florida where you and others participated in what I call the United States coup d'etat. We need to make sure that it does not happen again. Over and over again, after the election, when you stole the election, you came back here and said get over it. No, we are not going to get over it. And we want verification from the world.

The Congressional record now looks like this:

Ms. CORRINE BROWN of Florida. Mr. Chairman, I want to turn in a copy of the Certified Vote Organization. Over 1,700 people, that is technologists, lawyers, political scientists, says that the technology that we are using in the upcoming election is flawed.I come from Florida * * * No, we are not going to get over it. And we want verification from the world. (obtained from Congressional Universe, Lexis Nexis)

This incident came to my attention through an article on CQ Weekly, so I went back through the Congressional record to find how it played out on the floor and to see what the record looked like. (Now the real silly thing is, the clerk had to read back what Rep. Brown said, so we still have the full comment.) The CQ report is what really got my attention. The article noted that the chamber rules (designed to keep decorum) “mostly forbid cursing and language that maligns a House colleague, a senator or the president.” Therefore, Brown was silenced and erased by the Speaker Pro Tempore for the reason:

As stated by the Chair in response to a parliamentary inquiry on February 27, 1985, Members should not accuse other Members of committing a crime, such as "stealing" an election. By accusing an identifiable Member of stealing an election, the gentlewoman's words are not in order.

I need to examine the record further, but it is not clear that Brown accused an “identifiable Member”—I assume that the record refers to the person that started the election discussion. Well, what makes this really interesting for me is that the CQ article points out how rarely this occurs and notes one recent instance where Members called for a comment to be striken and it was not. In 2003, an object was raised on behalf of the Congressional Black Caucus regarding a racially insensitive comment made by Barbara Cubin. Cubin’s comment, because it did not directly address a member, was kept on the record. Her comment was in regards to gun legislation that was on the floor. Cubin said (courtesy again of LexisNexis):

Mrs. CUBIN. Mr. Chairman, I rise today in opposition to this amendment and all of the other amendments which have been offered today on this bill, and I encourage Members to vote against the amendments and for the bill.I am the mother of two sons. One time when they were young, little boys, the boys and I were alone at night and we had a burglar break into our house. The fear that caused me to find out that someone had been in my house, rifling through my house, really made me take a look at self-defense and my right to own and bear arms. I became a big advocate of that at that time.I appreciate all of the scenarios the other side is throwing out about why we need this amendment, because I agree, there are too many deaths due to gunshot wounds in this country. Too many children are dying because they are getting ahold of weapons that were legally owned, but were not taken care of correctly and were not separated from the ammunition. That is happening, and that is a problem. But these folks have entirely the wrong answer.We need a common-sense, balanced answer to treating problems like this, and it does not involve taking away our second amendment, our right to own and defend ourselves. We not only deserve to be defended from terrorists home and abroad, but we also deserve to be able to
buy guns to defend ourselves in our own home.My sons are 25 and 30. They are blond-haired and blue-eyed. One amendment today said we could not sell guns to anybody under drug treatment. So does that mean if you go into a black community, you cannot sell a gun to any black person, or does that mean because my__

When an objection is made, Cubin states that she was not out of order and that she would never say anything to offend her “neighbors on the other side.” She apologized to her colleague “for his sensitivities” and attempts to go on with her statement, but her remarks are suspended by the chair. But the chair decided (after the clear reads the comments back into the record twice) that the words are not unparliamentarily under any rules and precedents in the House. The House resumes its business and takes a vote on the issue on the floor. Following the vote, Cubin offered an apology and this is how it appears in the Congressional Record (emphasis mine):

(Mrs. CUBIN asked and was given permission to speak out of order.)
Stereotyping Is Always Wrong
Mrs. CUBIN. Mr. Chairman, I do appreciate the Chair's ruling and the fact that it was upheld, but this is not something that I can just leave as it is, because I do not think that the situation that just occurred is good for the body, and it is not good for the individual people involved in it. My words intended to state, and if I had been able to finish my sentence and my thought, they would have stated that I do not believe in stereotyping anyone, any time, ever, for anything. That is what I believe, and I believe that from the bottom of my heart. I do apologize, not just to the gentleman from North Carolina. I apologize to everyone who may have been hurt in any way or insulted because of my remarks. But I really intend only, only to make the point, and I will speak on this bill later, but to make the point that stereotyping is always wrong. It does not matter who it is; it is always a wrong thing to do.I thank the Chairman, and I thank the gentleman for allowing me to have the time to address the body.

These two stories leave me with more questions than answers. I’m still trying to figure out how Representative Cubin was going to originally end that statement—one of those scenarios that seems doomed from the start….But anyways…Questions are a good thing to have in order to create arguments. Right or wrong, politically correct or incorrect, these two instances have motivated me to think about the place of silence and silencing—yet another reminder to read Cheryl Glenn’s Unspoken. Is part of what I’m calling “womanist rhetorics/politics” speaking out even when you are “out of order”? In the political arena, which women get to speak? When? Why? Why do Black women politicians keep speaking out of turn if they are continually told to be quiet? What sustains a Black woman politician when she is the first to speak on an issue or the only one to hold a certain position? (i.e. Barbara Lee) What is it drives this independence—this “out on a limb stance”—when you know that you may not be given the leniency others might? These are admittedly generalized questions, some more psychologically based than my project can handle, but questions are a good starting place I think.

(Excerpt #2 from today's writing)

Dissertation Topic

In my dissertation, I am looking at the rhetoric of Black women politicians. My project will present case studies of five elected women who challenged the perceived political obstacles of race AND gender and created bold womanist politics. As no Black woman has yet to obtain our highest national office, the presidency, my dissertation will also take up one appointed politician, Condoleezza Rice, who has gained one of the highest political positions in the US, and consequently one of the most recognized positions in the world. Partisanship and political ideology aside, my dissertation will investigate how these women articulate what is true to them, even when they are seen as political outsiders/marginalized voices. My focus on Black women in politics is motivated by my long term interests in Black women political activists and the study of American public address, a field that has almost completely ignored the voices of Black women and people of color. Since I was an undergraduate, I have been invested in the work of recovering and recauperating the voices of Black women. But as one of my committee members likes to say, I always know what texts I want to study or which women I want to focus on, but I struggle at times to find my argument. I just like to tell stories—love to recover parts of my history and make it compelling for a wider audience. But I’m looking for focus in my arguments for this dissertation—after all—I need to graduate.

(Excerpt #1 from my writing today)

Proposal Defense Set!

Yeah! Finally, we have found a date that works for my proposal defense. Next Wednesday (29th). It meant pushing back my move a couple days (and reducing the days between getting home and going on vacation from a week to two), but a little more stress in the personal life is "worth" a lot less stress in the academic life. For now. Being that this is my third degree quest, I should have the academic/personal balance all figured out--I guess I've learned enough to know that the personal generally takes one for the team. After this degree is done, personal life will definitely be coming first. School has run my life for 20+ years STRAIGHT--at some point I need to be free!! Tired of making the "hard choices"--tired of living in the middle of nowhere for...for what again?? Have I mentioned I can't wait to go home and be back in the comforts of the South???? You can imagine where I'll be looking for jobs for next year...

Good news is that I had a really productive research day--spent two hours reading up on Representative Corrine Brown for one of the three biographies I need to write. The reading on Brown didn't really tell me anything new, but I ran across some other information that helped spark my thinking on the diss...will write about it shortly...

Overcoming Proposal Lethargy

I had all of this great momentum to write from after my comprehensive exams were done at the end of April. I worked hard and wrote my dissertation proposal and now I'm in limbo world. I've been waiting for my committee members schedules to align so that we can meet for the proposal defense. Everyone on my committee is supportive of my topic and excited about the project, but we need to have the official meeting so that I can be truly ABD and get to work on this monster.

Now the wise person would be working on dissertation now, but what am I doing--grading speeches and papers all the time. I'm teaching first session and the class meets every single day of the week--so it is constant grading upon grading. By the time I get done, the last thing I feel like doing is thinking and writing "critically." Fortunately, this week is the last week of class. But I've decided that I'm making excuses and I need to get myself writing again. Part of the reason for starting the blog--to write write write. Couple years ago, I took a seminar in the English department on publishing and professionalism. One of the books for the course was Writing Your Dissertation in Fifteen Minutes a Day (by Bolker). The title is just a hook, but the premise is that in order to get a dissertation done, you need to write everyday. And a way of getting into that routine is to start with at least 10-15 minutes of freewriting (dissertation log) about your ideas and your process. So that's what I'm trying to do. But since I have a very fixed topic and a good bit of research done on the project, I think I need to start working past this stasis my proposal process has created. Bolker recommends creating a routine where writing is the first thing you do in the day (teaching makes that hard for me--I'm not a morning person and getting up to do anything before class is not going to happen this week) and that you set a goal for the day. You don't do anything else until that goal is met. She recommends several methods, the one I am thinking I will take up is the "certain pages" goal. This involves writing a reasonable number of pages a day--not polished pages--just potentially useable pages. The idea is to create a "zero draft" which you can revise and convert into a "real" first draft. None of this is rocket science--I write zero drafts all the time--and most writers now they should write every day. But knowing and doing are two very different things. So logging this process is a very important step for me in making sure I'm doing what I know. Making sure I'm writing down my goals and sticking to them.

For now, because of teaching and moving, I know that I won't be able to create a real routine, but I need to start back thinking about my project more. I want it to be more of a part of my daily thinking so that I can sharpen my arguments for the diss. So my goal for this week is to start reading again. I plan to spend at least an hour in the library each day this week researching and reading up on Black women politicians. Outside of my dissertation, I have three biographies that I am writing on politicians, so I want to work on those articles this week as a way to get myself thinking more about my project.

I HATE Moving!

As much as I want to get out of this town, I hate the fact that I have to move. Moving has to be one of the most annoying processes ever created. The only time moving is halfway okay is when you move away from home for the first time. When I left the deep South for college, I was packed for weeks in advance--I was so ready to go to my MidAtlantic School--even though I had no idea where I was going or what I was getting into, I couldn't wait. And the move in was kinda fun. But since then, I've learned to hate moving. Moving to the mountains of the North was bad--moving across town two years ago was worse. That move was the first time I ever moved by myself, and if I can help it, I'll never do that again. Definitely learned that true love will help you move, but that's another post in and of itself (LOL!).

So this move is just funny. I'm actually moving back home and I'm actually excited about it. But I have no desire to keep anything from up here. Too many bad memories I think. I'm ready to start over. Finish out this degree and move on with my life. One of my friends suggested that I just walk away from my security deposit, and just leave any stuff here that I don't want. Not a completely bad idea, but Lord knows that a graduate student budget could use that security deposit back in FULL. I've managed to sell some stuff at prices even Tyrone Biggums could afford, so that helps make for less stuff that I have to move. But it doesn't change the fact that I don't wanna pack, don't want to pay Honda a king's ransom to get my car serviced, and I don't wanna drive my raggeddy-behind car 600 miles (even if it is downhill). But it's time to go. It was actually cold up here yesterday--it is the middle of June and we were in the 50s last night--what kind of mess is that. For years as a kid, I complained about the hot, muggy Southern summers; now I can't wait to get back to them. Can't wait to be where the sun is out all year round--if I had known this part of the North had less sunny days than Seattle, I mighta thought twice about coming to school here (that's a lie--the offer was too good to pass up). But like I said, it's definitely time to go--time to be home--time to get cracking on this dissertation project....

New Beginnings...

After eight years of being away from home, I am finally returning to my roots. I am so excited about going home and I can't get out of here fast enough!! Just two more weeks. Two more long weeks in the lonely mountains of Northern USA.

I'm going through this whole big change in my life and preparing to embark on the overwhelming task of writing a dissertation. So, I thought I'd create something to make sure that I'm writing and thinking everyday and journaling about this experience. So for now I'm just setting this thing up and figuring out how it works--the real writing will come soon...