Saturday, April 3, 2010

A stroll through the park

On Thursday and Friday, I decided to walk through the park and through Midtown since the weather has been so amazing.  It was an effort to begin my commitment to finding things to photograph.  Over the two days of exploring, I probably took 40 pics.  The one I'm showing here is of a Japanese Magnolia in full bloom just inside the entrance to Piedmont Park.  I love how the blooms look like tulips springing out of the tree limbs.

As for today, it's still beautiful out, and I'm tempted to do some more exploring, but I know I need to get some work done on the dissertation, another of my commitments to finish on time.  I figure I have 5 months before I need to hand stuff over for final review, and at this point, I've turned in only 1 chapter and have pieces of 3 others that I haven't touched in 5 years.  Most days, I could care less about finishing, but I just think if I don't, I'll spend a lifetime regretting that I didn't, even though it means more right now to my mother and grandmother that I'm called "Doctor" than it does to me.  Even still, I'm going to give it a shot, so today, I need to map out the remainder of my outline for my second chapter.  I have about 15 pages so far, and I think it will easily blossom into 35-40 pages when I'm done.  (Don't you love all the springtime discourse making its way into my post?  Somewhat unintentional, I assure you.)

I suppose by day's end we'll see what I've actually accomplished.  I feel worried that I'm going to spend all this time writing the dissertation only to miss the ultimate deadline, but I keep in my mind that my friend Becky wrote her entire dissertation from scratch in four months.  Since I have some bits & pieces already assembled, I'm hoping I can flesh mine out in five and have something final by early September to hand in to my committee.

So off we go to explore Thomas Mann's Death in Venice, I guess.

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