Hummingbirds and a Brief Note

The ruby-throated hummingbird takes about 16-18 days from the moment the egg enters the nest for the first time to the first tentative pokes of a fragile new life’s beak breaking out into the world. I have about 5 baby hummingbird’s worth of grad school left. In the time it would take for 5 fresh vibrating sugar guzzlers to enter the world, I will have finished my research, written a proposal for a project based on that research, completed the project, presented it to a committee of people I’m somehow terrified of and friends with, and sobbed enough to call into question whether anything I’ve ever done has been worth the effort.

Until then, I’m sorry but it looks like my little hiatus will persist. I really miss writing here, and I miss the comments and reading other blogs that are way, way better than mine. But it’s not time for that just yet.

However, I can’t just stop by and leave again without offering anything substantial. That’s like the internet version of that person at clothing stores who “just wants to check in” but never actually helps.

So here is a list of things that have happened in the last few months. Detailed stories will likely come at a later date.

1. A student called me a psychopath but agreed I was good at metaphor.
2. My SO and I moved in together.
3. I started teaching a non-fiction class.
4. I’ve applied for a lot of teaching jobs because leaving school is scary and money is cool.
5. I’ve become more obsessed with commercials to the point that I might start writing about them here.
6. I had a fun identity crisis, but now things are A-OK!
7. I’ve gotten a little better at cooking, and I am disproportionately smug about it.
8. A tea shop I go to started selling cookies in the shape of dragons. Dragons!
9. My cat is still very soft. This isn’t new, but she’s right here, and it’s hard not to mention it.
10. I’ve been listening to a lot of music by angry women because that’s just where I’m at now.
11. I have not had a hangover in months which means I’m either way better at drinking or astonishingly poor.
12. I became astonishingly poor.
13. A student held me hostage via my rate my professor profile.
14. I had a really fantastic nap on the floor of my office.
15. I thought I was going to die but later learned that’s just what I feel like now.
    
    There’s probably more I want to say, but my body is in that stage of desperate exhaustion where it starts shutting down areas of the brain while you’re actively using them. So I can’t remember the last few months very well, and I think my encyclopedic knowledge of early 2000s tv just fell asleep.

I’ve got a lot of work to do before the next hummingbird hatches.

See all of you soon.

JK