Meteorological Dissonance

I am waiting the Winter Solstice out.  I was thinking midnight was around the corner, but it is only 9:45 pm.  It feels like it has been dark all day.

The university is closed for a full two weeks, which seemed like a decadent luxury.  I structured in my head the industrial days I would have with reading, researching, writing, and dissertating punctuated with tea, wine, and SunDoc Club.  All of these hours are mine.

Two weeks really isn't a lot of time when two major holidays interrupt it in tandem with traveling.  Suddenly, I have like two days to myself, one of which was spent around getting a refrigerator repaired.

Because I loathe the holidays so much, I do most of my shopping online, but I dread shopping for groceries tomorrow and the accompanying traffic.  My goal is to hit up Trader Joe's while everyone else is sitting in their cubicle with their cup of joe.

Suddenly, I have no idea how to structure my time.  If I start reading, I get anxious and fidgety because I realize there is so much to do, and I am ready to start synthesizing.  If I cut straight to writing, I don't know what to write.  I also have a conference paper and presentation in t-minus three weeks.

So it would probably be a good idea to outline my goals.

1.  Finish reading the suggested American legal theory texts.  Levi's Introduction to Legal Reasoning is excruciatingly  dull and painful, so I am plowing through that tonight.

2.  Refine the research question.  I feel like I did this, but it doesn't sound fancy.

3.  Write up my methodology section.  I am still uneasy giving up my survey, but it adds an element of complexity that is unnecessary for my study, so I will pass until I receiving one of those large grants that everyone thinks they are going to land to write the book.

4.  Write the conference paper.  Because it is that easy.

Admittedly, I enjoyed pretending to read in my armchair earlier, but the morning felt incomplete.  There were no breakfast foods or even milk for coffee.  I dressed for winter, but it was over 60 degrees outside, so I felt stuffy.  I thought indulging in comfort food would make feel relaxed, but not so much.  Perhaps after a shower and pajamas, Levi will be appealing.

But I am not getting my hopes up.