M.A.

Done and done.*

15 minutes before my exam, my substitute teacher hadn't shown up. I called him, and it had just slipped his mind. The exam itself was fine. I apparently misunderstand Roland Barthes, but I a) don't care and b) passed anyways. I was irritated to hear that I don't work closely enough with the literature in my thesis, because there hasn't been any literature taught in this department since 2007, but at least they didn't mention the part of my thesis where I accidentally ended a paragraph midsentence. They say an oral exam is the pinnacle of the work you've done leading up to it, and for whatever reason, I feel as dissatisfied with the exam as I do with the work I've done in grad school. This isn't my everyday perfectionism - I've reigned that in here, on the advice of many current and former grad students, although all it's gotten me is a tendency to turn in papers with typos. Maybe this is burnout?
In other news, I got a big fat summer grant, so I won't starve. I actually wanted a summer teaching position, but I realize this is more prestigious. I will count my blessings and work harder to not go stir crazy achieve healthier structure and balance in my life on my own than I did last summer (ten points if you find me a class on electrical wiring or carpentry that I can take). I was also awarded a fellowship for next year which involves some outreach stuff in area highschools.
I promise, I am excited about all this, even if it doesn't sound like it. Thing is, I'm also run down and facing the enormous mountain of work that piled up while I prepped for this exam and having doubts about the future of higher education. And it's been raining the last few days, reminding me about those repairs we need to make along with the repairs it would be really smart to make if we're going to mess around with repairs in the first place, and how that will cost more than I make in two years. Some people would say "le sigh" here, but now that I have a graduate degree in Germanic Studies, I feel obligated to say das Seufzen.
One more thing before I start unearthing my desk: Rob and I also registered at Menards. You can look at that registry here: http://www2.menards.com/giftregistry/internet/home.jsp
Unfortunately, you can't see pictures of what we want there, but if you're curious, you can take the name of the item and google it.

*Well, done except for finishing my courses for the semester and turning in some paperwork. Hopefully that will really be as easy as it sounds when I write it!