I have a big paper due on January 10th, but that date is still too far in the future to give me the sense of urgency I need to get any real work done. I’d like to say that I do my best work under pressure, but I’m not sure that’s true. Rather, I do most of my work under pressure for no reason other than I generally leave myself no choice. A handful of times in the past I’ve completed assignments with plenty of time to spare, and while I liked the both the satisfaction and the opportunity for fine-tuning that resulted from my diligence, apparently I like sloth just a little bit more.

I’m writing about marriage patterns and the “marital economy” in early modern Britain and it’s a lot more interesting, I promise, than it might sound. Actually, I’m doing an extended review of a book on the subject, so it’s not even as though I’ve got to do any research of my own. I’ve got everything I need in front of me, in one format or another, but still I can’t get my act together.

I think a certain amount of my problem is stage fright of a sort — I’ll be presenting my work to a tough audience, a group that I find more than just a little intellectually intimidating. Also, I’ve been thinking quite a bit lately about my thesis topic — broadly, the religious aspects of the Protestant Reformation in Sweden — and this essay I should be writing is something else entirely. I could have chosen something closer to my (as-yet-unembarked-upon) thesis work, but I had a hard time fitting it into the context of the course, which is on economic survival during the early modern period.

I must confess, however, that what I’ve been thinking about most is my hair. I have an appointment for Thursday morning for highlights and a cut, and I’ve been driving myself crazy trying to decide on a color. I kind of want a blue or purple streak or two in there, but Olof isn’t really on board. It’s not his decision, of course, but I don’t want to get something he won’t like (plus, I’m not totally sure I’d like it myself). What to do, what to do?

This entry was posted by Beverly on Monday, December 31st, 2012 at 00:32. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.