End of October

Tomorrow is Halloween. For the first time in a lot of years, I don't really care. I'm not dressing up, not throwing a party for the kids, and don't have any one to bring trick-or-treating. What shall I do with myself?

Well, I'll probably work on homework, since I have a 4 page paper due next Wed that hasn't been started, a whole website that has barely been started, and 2 chapters in anatomy that need read. Blah. Oh, and then I'll be getting ready for NaNo, which starts at midnight on November 1st.

Mandy and I have a midnight NaNo date ☺ Of course, midnight for her is 1am for me. I'll still be there.

I'll also be worrying myself to a tizzy about graduate school. Just when I thought I had it all figured out (psycholinguistics at the University of Florida -- go Gators!!) it was brought to my attention that a theoretical/research degree is only really good for one thing -- research. Oh, and teaching. Which is fun, but not necessarily good for a lifetime career. Possibly, but not necessarily. So, I've been e-mailing some experts at the U of F to see if there is something better suited for me. So far, I have thought about:

cognitive psychology
speech-language pathology
psycholinguistics

None of them are 100% what I want. SLP is the closest to a practical solution as I can get, but I don't want to be JUST a speech-language pathologist. Actually, I don't really want to be one at all. I just want to know some of the stuff an SLP knows so I can use it for research. If I could get a clinical license with cognitive psych, I might go that route, but it's even more theory-based than psycholinguistics. Oh, psh. Just when I thought I was set.... plenty more to think about.

Then there's my NaNo novel. All I know so far is that my protag, Quinn, is a struggling full-time romance writer who gets dumped by her long-term boyfriend and high-tails it to the ocean for inspiration, where she somehow runs into the paranormal side of life. I think my mMC's name will be Joss. I even had a last name for Joss, but I have forgotten it.

Oh, in good news, I wrote a poem. And I won 3rd place in a poetry contest! Which entitles me to a $100 gift certificate at Barnes and Noble! Wooo!!!

Maybe I should by some books about choosing a grad program/career....

Off-Task

Do you ever write something you've already done on a list just so you can cross it off? I just did that, and it felt pretty good. I looked at my academic planner for the week and realized I wasn't very accomplished so far this week because I hadn't crossed anything off... then I realized I had barely written much down to begin with. So I started writing in things I had already done, just to cross them off. Now I feel much more accomplished for this week ☺

In other news, the next 51 days will be pretty busy for me. NaNo starts on Nov. 1, and I haven't done a lick of pre-planning for it. This will be my 2nd year attempting (I finished last year a hair above 50K words) but my first year doing it while being in school full-time. Should be fun. And, to add to that, I don't even know what I'll write. I was sick for 3 weeks in September so I got behind on everything -- schoolwork, writing, housework, Christmas stockings... everything. So, I think I'm gonna wing it for NaNo! Also, I'm headed to Florida on October 22!!! Going to check out the UF campus and linguistics program and try to make a decision about my future after graduation -- which is exactly 7 months away. That's still a ways off, but much closer than I've ever been (obviously)!! We'll be in Florida (hubby and I, that is) over our anniversary too, but will most likely spend that day on a long-ass plane trip and in and out of airports (8 hours for a 1.5 hour flight... not much faster than driving, it seems). Add a couple of final projects, including a website for IPW (Insanity Pro Wrestling, my husband's wrestling company), and extra IPW shows that I must attend due to an arrangement with said hubby.... oh, and holiday dinners! I love cooking Thanksgiving dinner for the fam... well anyhow, the next 51 days are going to be super busy.

But for now, I'm just trying to get through my list and cross everything out. And maybe get some extra done. Oh, and head to Kokomo to visit my grandpa, who had a stroke on Sunday. :( Busy, busy!!