It never ends…

I’m pretty sure I’ve been running around like a chicken with my head cut off for the past week or so, and it’s been pretty exhausting. I’m trying to prioritize everything I need to get done in the next four days, and the list seems like it’s never ending. Case in point:

• Read 5 articles on recruitment
• Come up with an idea for a recruitment study and write a 5 pg paper about it
• Come up with a research proposal idea for a motivation study and write a 2 pg outline
• Read four articles on motivation
• Come up with 3-4 discussion questions about those motivation articles
• Finish revising the methods and results section of my manuscript
• Look up and send out some additional results to my coauthors
• Start the discussion section of said manuscript
• Finish writing another section of the book chapter I’m working on
• Go to an all-day conference on Friday
• Find time to see my friends Friday night
• Read a labmate’s thesis proposal and give him feedback
• Finish reviewing 9 conference submissions
• Clean my entire apartment
• Go to a Halloween party (yes, during November)
• Make something for said party
• Maybe actually go to a bikram class (or two)
• Buy and send my Mom’s birthday present

Edit: As of Sunday morning, I’ve gottensomethings done…but I’ve got a whole lot left. And I notice pretty much all of the “fun” things on this list were done. As for the work, though…that’s a whole different story.

Nothing’s more frustrating than running dozens of analyses only to find…..(wait for it!)…..nothing is significant.

Ugh.

Break time for soup and grilled cheese. (Yes, I’m in 3rd grade again.) This is what happens when I spend all afternoon in bed in my pajamas because I feel like crap. Bah.  

Oof.

These past few days have been kicking my ass. 

Now that Sunday evening has rolled around, I’m finally feeling a bit better. Thankfully, wonderful conversations with my boyfriend, brother, and mom have certainly helped with that. 

School’s just been dragging me through the ringer more than usual lately. Honestly—one week “off” for “Spring Break” in the middle of a 22 week stretch of two quarters worth of classes is just not enough. It’s the beginning of week 3, and I’m struggling not to feel burned out. Part of what I’ve been struggling with is the realization that I made some major mistakes with a project I’ve been working on recently. Thankfully, I caught the mistakes just in the nick of time, but it’s still been a huge pain in the ass trying to fix them. And I’ll get to have a hopefully not-so-awful conversation with my advisor about all of this sometime this week. Apparently with everything I’ve been doing, something just had to give. I’ve been working very hard on not being too critical of myself, and this whole experience has been a major personal test for me!

On a positive note, I went on a shopping trip yesterday with a few of the girls from my program so that we could stock up on some professional wear for a conference we’ll be going to next week. (San Diego, here I come!) I snagged a few great deals, and will be looking super classy! I also got quite a bit of work done this weekend, so hopefully I’ll be feeling a little less overwhelmed as this new week kicks into gear!

Last night? Wonderful. I love finding new places in Portland to go to with my friends, especially when these places involve amazingly delicious (and affordable!) crepes. 

This morning? I sleep way past my alarm, wake up with a headache, and realize I left my heat blasting all night. Shit. 

This is what I get for staying up past midnight, apparently. 

Waking up at 6:20am to read journal articles and eat breakfast is what happens when you go to bed at 10:30 the night before because you can’t keep your eyes open. 

Oh, to be a grad student. 

I seriously just spent at least five minutes contemplating the outfit I was going to wear to walk half a block to the Plaid Pantry to buy toilet paper.

Scarf? No scarf?

Priorities, people.

What I Wanted to Do Tonight…

Was get in a few more hours of work, and organize my life for the rest of the week.

What I’ll be doing instead…

…Calling it an early night because this dull headache’s got me feelin’ like a zombie. 

Big ugh. 

Creepin’ Back…

I agonized over writing a big post explaining my silence over the last few weeks.

But instead I decided to creep back with a couple of very short posts over the last day. And that’s worked just fine with me. 

Especially when this morning started off with a 2.5 hour phone call (only about five minutes of which were spent on the phone with an actual human being) to the IRS, a minor panic attack, and feeling completely frazzled. This continued on with feeling drained for the rest of day. 

Tomorrow will be a better day. I am determined to make it so. I will be spending the day in a nearby coffeeshop getting some serious work done. And refusing to stress out. 

Quarter System = Ugh.

I may need to go on another facebook hiatus soon, as my friends from the Midwest are starting their last week of classes before finals week, and then graduation. I am constantly reminded of the fact that I have six weeks left before I can claim to be on “summer vacation.” (Which will only be vacation from classes, not work.) 

Someone’s a grumpy-pants right now. Which may or may not have something to do with the fact that I’m avoiding my thesis like the plague currently.

Dear FedEx, You Suck

Warning: This is a vent post.

I had issues with FedEx a few months ago, when they refused to hold my package at their location, since my apartment is not conducive to having packages dropped off for me. (When I finally had a friend drive me out to pick it up, I was informed that they’d been able to deliver it. I returned home to find my laptop battery jammed under my door.)

Now, I’ve been waiting for a textbook of mine to come in, and I looked up the tracking information tonight to find that it had been “delivered” yesterday. And signed for by a certain “JSMITH.” Um, I am not JSMITH, nor do I have my damn textbook. So tomorrow I call FedEx and try to figure out who the hell they gave my stats book to, and since I know that’s not going to do me a lot of good, I foresee a phone call to my apartment complex in which I beg them to give me a neighbor’s address information. (That’ll go over well, right?)

I’m imagining one of my neighbors has a collection of packages from people in this building. Damn it.

Help. Any other ideas for what I can do, other than chalk it up to a loss and order another book?