What the blog?!?

I finally decided to break down and document my scholarly adventures online. After pumping out seventy-five pages of papers in three days and having just endured the mess that was my spring quarter, I've realized there is a lot of entertainment value in the masochism that accompanies graduate school and most of it is good for a laugh at the very least. I see a kind of solidarity among musicologists in coursework toward the end of the quarter. Our hearts and souls are weary as we approach the finish line, we become sleep-deprived and cranky, and begin to base our nutrition on how many lattes we consume. We have relationship issues. We wonder why our partners are frustrated with us. We wonder why he or she decided to break up with us. We wonder why we are still single. We wonder how and when will we ever have the time to find someone who understands this breakneck pace of insanity. We wonder if we can ever possibly catch up with the work, or if we will forever be two steps behind. The stress builds, but we bitch, we moan, we drink, and somehow we make it through. Having just made it through another year of this rollercoaster, I am feeling very calm at the moment. Since September, I've lost many nights of sleep, a gall bladder, and my partner of over three years. But I've gained many friends, drinking buddies, a few good ideas, and a better sense of myself as a scholar.

This summer, since I am not in coursework, I will likely use this blog to discuss the projects I am working on and planning the insanity that will soon follow this fall, when I enter my final year of Ph.D. coursework. During the hot and hazy days of the Cincinnati summer, I will probably be spending a couple days a week bundled up in the frigid icebox of our music library, doing research, and hanging with some colleagues at local coffee shops as we begin preparing for the qualifying exams. Lots of plans on tap for the fall, including potential trips to various conferences, a full course load, and teaching duties. To jump-start my summer, I've been writing abstracts for a bunch of conferences, a book review, and created a YouTube channel for my Tori Amos-related research. Cheers to the internet and a great summer!