Prospectus Draft Submitted

I finished the first draft of my prospectus on time!  I completed my last read-through around 9:30 last night and sent it off to my professor.  I actually felt a bit emotional when I hit "send" on the email because I realized that it was the first time I'd submitted any writing since before Nora was born.  Since she was born, I have been plagued by the "I have no idea how I am going to do this" feeling.  Every new stage of the process feels impossible.  But the thing I try to repeat to myself is "I may not be sure I can do it, but I'll keep trying until I'm sure I can't do it."  Since I took on the Katherine Anne Porter job, it has felt increasingly impossible to get "enough" work done on my prospectus.  So even though I may still need to spend several months revising this draft before it is good enough to be filed, it felt really satisfying to get the first draft under my belt.  And since it has been so long since I wrote anything academic, it felt good to finally be able to sit down and get all my ideas down on the page.  Blogging and paper writing may be very different types of writing, but it made me thankful that I've continued writing here.  Since I have attempted to undertake some more thoughtful posts, I do think it has kept me from getting *too* rusty.

So once I hit send, I gave myself a bit of a break until I get feedback from my advisor tomorrow.  I slept great, got Nora off to school, watched a little Netflix, took a nap, met Vickie at her pool, and then picked Nora up when she woke up from her nap to join us for some pooltime.  It was a lovely day that left me feeling a bit recharged and ready to hear whatever my advisor has to say about the draft.  I also realized that I have a lot of fun activities coming up in the next few weeks: my first Orioles game of the season, a day at the DC tennis tournament with Vickie, a concert with friends on my birthday, and then our trip to Oregon.  I will still have to squeeze plenty of work in around these events, but it is a relief to know I'll be doing them with this first draft behind me instead of looming ominously in the future.

When we got home from the pool this afternoon, Oscar was much worse for wear after what I thought was a minor injury this morning.  He went from refusing to come up the stairs to screaming out in pain, so we thought he had slipped a disk in his back like he did when Nora was born.  The vet informs us, however, that he must have done something to tweak his neck, so he's on a steroid that hopefully gets him feeling better soon.  It sure is tough to see your dog in pain and not be able to do much to help. That has put a bit of a damper on my planned relaxing evening with Billy, but I'm still enjoying a hard cider, a little TV, and blog updating while we watch the Orioles.

I also wanted to say thank you to everyone who has helped and encouraged me over the past few days.  Billy, Patti, and Chuck watched Nora for several hours on Saturday so I could work, and knowing she was happily occupied helped me stay focused.  I also appreciate those of you who checked in on me over the course of the weekend to see how I was doing!