Goodness! Seriously. A blink ago it was June 6. And now it's the 4th-of-July weekend. Time swooshes by especially fast when one's busy, that's the lesson learned in June.
We traded in our Beantown residence for a summer abode in Gorges Ithaca, New York. We went to grad school here, and the Hubs was asked back to teach math camp to kids who where math superstars in their respective colleges, where math, however, wasn't taught as rigorously as perhaps it should have been. These kids are now getting ready for prestigious grad schools, and to prepare them for what will no doubt be a very different academic setting, they participate in an 8-week super-intensive math program at Cornell. And the Hubs is one of their professors. The program is very, very, very intense; the students work extremely hard and are in class between 10 am and 11 pm every day, six days a week. The Hubs is in his office by 8 am and doesn't leave till 9:30 pm.
And moi? Well. I said I went to grad school here. Truth is, I'm still in grad school. I would have been done by now if I hadn't been given the opportunity to teach last year, but since I taught and published and yadda yadda, I didn't get my dissertating act together and. Am. Not. Done. Yet. So, the Hubs' schedule suits me well: I'm also up on campus each morning at 8, go to my library carrel from which I have the most amazing view of campus, the town, and Cayuga Lake, and write like a maniac till the library closes at 9 pm. Then my brain usually is kaputt and I fall into bed and don't move a toe till the next morning.
Still. It's all very awesome. We love Ithaca and are so happy just being here (even if we don't have time to do anything, say, exciting: see any of the state parks, for instance, or bike around the lakes). I'm not complaining at all. It feels great to be productive, and I'm beginning to see the light at the end of the dissertation tunnel. (One. More. Chapter.) I'm a bit panicky about finishing; I thought I'd have another semester of fellowships but then the university where I taught last year offered me a full-time lecturing position for this coming year (Yay!!! Very exciting news!). Once I start teaching in September I will have zero time to dissertate. So, the pressure is on. Pressure in Ithaca is totally fine, though. (Pressure in Boston usually ends in back pain, or so I noticed earlier this spring.)
And now, can you guess what the knitting chez Wollgut is doing? It's taking a summer snooze. It went on vacation without me. It's probably at your house. While traveling in May I managed a tiny Multnomah shawlette, but I haven't had the time to block it or to take photos of it. It's hanging out with the yarn I optimistically brought along to make three sweaters (!) this summer (!!). Ha!
And that's all, folks. You have a splendid holiday weekend (should this weekend be a holiday for you). Enjoy watching the World Cup (I'm watching the really exciting games in my carrel, on a screen split between ESPN 3 and my last chapter) (Go, Podolski! Go, Özil! Schweini! Lahm! Müller!). And if you're neither into football or July 4th festivities, make yourself a perfect weekend in whichever way pleases you!
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