how academia workz.
someone says, call for papers! you think, i'll write one!
send off fifty word abstract. receive word of acceptance; be pleased. shuffle email to bottom of pile.
six months later, whatever part of you thought it up is dusty and hungover and has enough to do keeping up with current demands. it also has gotten conflated with the part of you that doesn't know which moving box you put your great-grandmother's crystal decanter in.
i thought i could leverage some writing i'd already thought out. it looks to me now, though, that i gussied up that abstract so it would sound better, and got aways away from my intended, pre-fabbed argument--and possibly gussied my way right into some all nighters and acid reflux. first quarter! moving! our godson's baptism! october is suddenly huge!
the problem is that it all starts with the fifty words. it's like buying something on very bad credit terms; the piper always comes back around. and he wants a powerpoint presentation with that cogent thesis, thanksverymuch.
maybe i'll just do a little dance for them instead. and see if my advisor sends me back to washington heights in a cardboard box.
send off fifty word abstract. receive word of acceptance; be pleased. shuffle email to bottom of pile.
six months later, whatever part of you thought it up is dusty and hungover and has enough to do keeping up with current demands. it also has gotten conflated with the part of you that doesn't know which moving box you put your great-grandmother's crystal decanter in.
i thought i could leverage some writing i'd already thought out. it looks to me now, though, that i gussied up that abstract so it would sound better, and got aways away from my intended, pre-fabbed argument--and possibly gussied my way right into some all nighters and acid reflux. first quarter! moving! our godson's baptism! october is suddenly huge!
the problem is that it all starts with the fifty words. it's like buying something on very bad credit terms; the piper always comes back around. and he wants a powerpoint presentation with that cogent thesis, thanksverymuch.
maybe i'll just do a little dance for them instead. and see if my advisor sends me back to washington heights in a cardboard box.
posted by L. at 5:43 PM
2 Comments:
I don't think you had a great-grandmother with a crystal decanter.
Bow out of NYC in November, and PSI--they won't come after you, and you'll have another chance. You need a break. No rolaids, no hair falling out.
no, there will be no bowing out of international conferences. that is not how we roll here. besides, we just booked our plane tickets and there's a production in NY i need to see for other research. we will get this paper done. it can't be that hard.
and i do have something decanterish that belonged to editha--it may be cut glass rather than crystal (i'm not really sure of the difference, frankly), and it's more like a . . . flagon, i guess, than a decanter. but i have it! MLH gave it to me years ago. there was a little lidded jar that went with it. i don't know what became of that; i only took the one piece. which is now in bubble wrap somewhere between coasts.
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