Hesitant, Hopeful

Matt and I had a really nice Fourth of July this year. We spent the day hanging out in Stephenville. I made rib tips, corn on the cob, and apple pie, and we played D&D all day. Geeky, yes, but we had a good time, anyway. I just got a new set of dice, so I've been particularly eager to use them. Anyway, when the evening came, we headed over to the park and caught the fireworks show--we ran into Melanie & Joey, and watched the show with them. The whole day was much more chill than it would have been had we gone to Waco, where the crowds are insane and so is parking. There're crowds here, too, but they're manageable.

Anyway, thanks to the holiday falling on a Monday and our having spent the whole day doing nothing, rather than working and reading (for my thesis), we're behind this week. I've spent the whole week reading The Mysteries of Udolpho, mostly aloud to Matt because I find that I read this particular book quicker when I'm reading it aloud. Most of the time, it's the other way around, but this book is very, very dense and the beautifully written prose tend to make the mind wander. A wandering mind is not conducive to getting the thing read so I can move on to the other books I also have to read. So, aloud it is. The book is 693 pages and after reading all week, I'm only on 475! If I read today and tomorrow, I should be able to finish it, and then it's onto Clermont and then Twilight (series, not just the first book).

Here's the thing, the first chapter of my thesis is due a week from today and I've not gotten as much work done on it as I probably should by this time. I don't have to have all of these books done before I can write it, but I do have to have them done so that I can take my comps in 5 weeks. Besides, when it comes time to write my second chapter, which I think I have due in August, I'm going to need to have all of those books digested. So, I've been reading my face off! While it has been fun, it's also been work. There are moments when I'd like nothing more than to put Udolpho down and play RIFT, or Scrabble, or anything else, really. Alas (yes, dramatic, I know), I've been steadfastly sticking it out with this monster of a book. I'm totally patting myself on the back, here.

Oh, and speaking of my first thesis chapter, I've put a new meter on my sidebar (over there, see it, on the right?) to track my thesis progress. It's above my Love's Daughter bar, because it's more important right now, although I've written several thousand words on LD lately, too! It's set at 80+ pages because 80 pages is the bare minimum on this project. Right now, I'm planning for 6 chapters, two of which will be somewhere around 15-17 pages, while the other four will weigh in at 22-25 pages. If they're 15 and 25 pages, respectively, then the thing will go a good 130 pages, but we'll see. It's possible that those four chapters might only be 20 pages each. *shrug*

I did laugh a little when I put that meter over there and they say "Radcliffe's Daughters..." and "Love's Daughter". I started to feel a little self-conscious about the daughter's thing. Of course, that's not my whole thesis title, but when I tried to put "Radcliffe’s Daughters: a Study of Gothic Motifs, Female Authorship, and the Gothic Heroine in the Romantic and Modern Periods" it took up a whole lot of space, so I shortened it down. So, I'll just have to deal with the daughters, daughter thing. I was just happy when I realized that the plug-in that allows me to add those meters, Dave's Scribometer, was updated at some point allowing multiple instances of the widget (like an eternity ago, I'm so behind the curve). Before, you had to chose one project, but not anymore. Awesome!

Okay, I'm done yammering on and on about my thesis. I have to get back to reading, but Matt's working and put on Star Wars. I think his intention was to deter me from reading until he's done working so I can read to him. So, for now, I think I'll make lunch before I start wilting from the heat... again.