Sobriquet 59.3

Today turned out to be one of those days I wish I could do over. Although I woke up fairly early, I got off to a sluggish start and really didn't get anything done until the later part of the afternoon. I spent a few hours grading papers while watching the Yankees-Twins game which, coming on the heels of the Bengals' defeat of the Ravens in Baltimore, made for a very satisfying day for Erik, the Sports Fan but a somewhat less fulfilling day for Erik, the Scholar.

As I alluded to yesterday, I have been struggling with a remarkably heavy work load this week, a burden that, in its daunting immensity, has resulted in an overwhelming sense of anxious inertia more than a few times over the past couple of days. Thus, while yesterday was a fairly productive period for me, today was unpleasantly slow, work-wise, and I really could not focus on much of anything academic for most of the day.

As far as dissertation work goes, I have had next to no time to devote to my own work, and this frustrates me something fierce. Although my rereading of Diary of a Bad Year is important, I would really rather have made some headway on my conclusion. Hopefully, I will be able to make some progress on that front this coming week. I'd really like to finish the dissertation by semester's end, if at all possible.

For tomorrow: Read or, if possible, try to get a bit of prep work done.