31 March 2007

*Thunk*

(that's the sound of my head hitting the desk -- exhaustion)

I did finish the second afghan square.

It's beautiful.

No time to photograph.

Been working very hard.

It's gets harder with every passing moment.

Must turn in final revision this week.

Terrified.

Can't formulate sentences anymore.

Trying to also put together pictures for appendix.

Found lots of beautiful pictures that almost make me interested in this subject again, but they won't fit in the diss.

So here are some of them.


View of the countryside surrounding Vladimir, Russia.


Inside the fortress at Rostov-the-Great.


A hidden nook of the Rostov fortress.


The sign names the village that was once owned by the family I'm writing about. The name could mean "dear place." Or it could also mean "by the road."


From a reconstructed peasant house, now a museum, near Suzdal'.


Looks like wool to me...

12 comments:

The A.D.D. Knitter said...

Nothing like the grinding hell of the dissertation writing process to make you truly hate your topic!;)

At least you seem to have a sense of humor about it!

aija said...

good luck :) hopefully a thunk will let you sleep some!

Hege said...

How beautiful! Good luck, you are on the home stretch now!

Olga said...

You're almost there! By this time next week, you'll be done! (that's the thought that always keeps me going.) Good luck!

Anonymous said...

Best of luck - from a girl who just finished an 86 pager (including appendices)! You can do it!

Sarah said...

We're all cheering for you!

I love the first photo. There's always been something very moving about the landscape surrounding a place of (academic) interest. I love thinking that what I'm seeing and finding beautiful is the same thing that writers hundreds of years ago found beautiful and saw every day.

It's things like that that make me certain I'm returning to grad school. There's a book on Anglo-Saxon representations of natural landscape, nature, and cultural identity that just waiting to be written. And it's got my name on it.

Marianne said...

Good luck, Kate!
The photos are beautiful, and yep, looks like wool to me too.

Anonymous said...

Good luck. My husband is also doing his final review of his diss, so I'm vicariously feeling the pain.

Love the pictures.

Anonymous said...

Hang in there. You're going to do it, and it's going to be great.

Anonymous said...

Did you see this essay from the Chronicle of Higher Education?

http://chronicle.com/jobs/news/2005/07/2005072801c/careers.html

Anonymous said...

Me again... it cut off the last couple of bits of the URL. It's supposed to be /careers.html

Susan said...

Oh so close! Just think of the absolute blissful JOY that you'll experience once you're actually done (and the numbness in your toes and the tingling in your arms & hands goes away!)

I hope that somewhere in the back of all that exhausted gray matter you're still proud of yourself for doing all of this - - I know that we are all VERY proud of you for tackling such a monumental project and surviving to tell the tale with humor and loads of grace!!!!!