A Tale of Intense Academic Interest

I was up until 3:30 a.m. crafting a 10-page paper from start to finish. The writing process also included much of the research that I cited in the paper itself. Jay and I have a seldom-spoken agreement that when I have such a task to perform, he does something in the living room while I get the bedroom to work. This may be where he got the idea that the living room is "his space" (I had a lot of work to do this semester and sort of took the bedroom out from under him). Regardless, I have a few photos from my academic exploit yesterday/today I thought I would share.

3:31 p.m.
This was around the time Jay got home from work. I had spent most of the day reading research that I had found for my paper (which was about marriage as portrayed in theatre in eighteenth century England, if you care to know).

I had uploaded several online articles into Microsoft OneNote (which I cannot live without anymore) and had one book from the library that I was planning on using in my paper.

Jay saw me working diligently and so as not to disturb me, he wrote me a note on a post-it and stuck it to my laptop. It made me smile so I put it on the wall in front of me.

Here's a close-up:
(The text reads: You look very cute today! P.S. I ate all the turkey *picture of a turkey*

So time went on, I read a bit more and we went to another couple's house for some lentil soup as payment for driving them to their mechanic a couple of times when their car broke down. We were having a really nice time, feeling very sophisticated drinking tea and eating a vegan dinner at an actual table with other adults, talking about sophisticated things like The Blair Witch Project when I had to kill the mood and suggest that we leave.

On the way home, we stopped by CVS to pick me up some Red Bull and a couple of candy bars.

I unwrapped my Three Musketeers, cracked open my Red Bull and got to work at around...

9:39 p.m.
My laptop is closed here with my lamp on top of it (the Internet beckoned so many times, but I ignored its call, burying my face in a chapter on wife beating). I would have taken notes in OneNote, but I find it easier to write with a pen when reading from not-an-internet-article.

Jay was still out in the living room, I believe he was playing Assassin's Creed II. At some point I heard him switch from the game to a show or a movie.

I plowed through the articles, absorbing information like a sponge. Time flew by surprisingly quickly because I was able to keep my eyes from the clock (I have two on my desk, my laptop and an analog clock). I finally cracked open my laptop to review the notes I had put in the articles on OneNote to find connections I could make. Luckily that was very easy to do (historians like to talk about a lot of the same things, especially where feminist and gender studies are concerned).

THEN I got out the plays that I had read for the course. All of them:

1:28 a.m.
Because I'm smart and figured out what I was going to be writing my final paper on fairly quickly into the semester, I had made pencil marks and notes in the margins where significant lines were and was able to just go in and sticky note the bejeezus out of just about every play except for perhaps one or two out of the 9 or 10 read.

I traded Red Bull for water. I had a second one but I was feeling pretty good at this point, aside from a moderate stomachache that had been throbbing all afternoon. It didn't seem like it was 1:30 in the morning and I was still going strong.
At 3:20 I began to print my baby out. I went to fetch Jay who had fallen asleep on the couch to tell him he could come to bed. I stapled it all together and crashed myself.

Then this morning I proofread and revised it, printed it out again and stapled it much more confidently. To my surprise, I'm a fair typist and writer after midnight. But you would not believe my handwriting:

Neatly printed class notes:--------------------Insanely scribbled research notes:










((Click to enlarge))
I've been in college for 4 years now. This was the first time I've ever attempted to stay up into the wee hours of the morning to finish (much less start and finish) a project...especially with the aid of an energy drink.

All that said, I'm really proud of the paper I wrote. I didn't just pull it out of my ass and hand it in, I really thought about it and organized it. Before I endeavored to do what I did last night the paper had been swirling and stewing in my head so that all I had to do was create the mold to pour it into. Am I bragging? I feel like I might be bragging. Point is: It's done, done well and now all I have to focus on is concocting three lessons of a unit plan to be turned in on Tuesday.

If you read all that, congratulations. You're a better person now. ^_^