Wednesday, January 12, 2011

Upon a snowy Wednesday...

Every morning I set my alarm for 6 and every morning I seem to roll out of bed about 8... Furthermore, I've found myself staring out the window at the snow that continues to fall rather than focus on the book resting in my hands.  Still, I think Thackeray would smile at all of this; I read in one of his letters that he never felt satisfied with a single days work he'd done in his life.  Like me, he'd rather be eating foods he probably shouldn't have, and like my attachment to Facebook and bad TV, he was in the habit of curling up on a couch with a bad novel rather than writing or reading material of "substance."

Still! So far, I've read all the allusions to Ireland and Catholicism in all four volumes of his letters, discovered two books I need to order and several poems he wrote about Ireland (thankfully available online, but unfortunately without noted dates!)  Also, I've been rereading Irish Sketchbook and am up to page 200 (well... 181...) but will be at 250 by the time I put it down tonight.

I keep hoping I made the right decision to step away from teaching and lose myself in this, but I don't see how it would have worked any other way.  Even with my short attention span, at least 6hrs of solid work is getting done each day, more than I could have ever managed with a job, and I think I've come to realize I can get lost in scholarship or lost in teaching, I've never learned to do both simultaneously.

On a sad note, I'm really missing Craig.  But I shall see him Friday and this weekend we'll all humor and pretend my birthday isn't happening...

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