Greetings, Internet! I hope everyone is staying as safe and sane as possible. This week, I officially finished my teaching obligations, started writing the second dissertation chapter, and accidentally watched the end of a no-hitter! Daily summaries below!

Day Four Hundred and Twenty-Eight (5/14/21)

• Went outside for a bakery run, only to find that they were sold out of two of the four (okay, six) things I wanted. #dangimnottheonlyonewhoknowshowgoodthisplaceis
• My mother’s here!
• Ordered a replacement part for my shower wheelchair. One of the armrests is kind of falling apart.
• More administrative things. And here I thought I’d actually start writing a chapter today. Lol. Optimism, you’re such a tease.
• And thus endeth the brief Mets winning streak.
• Briefly FaceTimed my niece! She’s really a fan of climbing furniture.
• Total Times Outside: Sixty-Eight!
• Currently feeling: Once I get this rubric for grading these final exam essay questions, I am off to the races! Because I have another dissertation-themed race right after that!
• Currently looping: Sara Bareilles’ “No Such Thing/Satellite Call” from her life “Amidst the Chaos Live from the Hollywood Bowl” album. Holy moly, this was the mashup of her songs I never knew I needed.

Day Four Hundred and Twenty-Nine (5/15/21)

• Met my sister’s friend for brunch! We miss her.
• Got a matcha latte.
• Watched “Cabin in the Woods” because it came highly recommended. Am now fairly scared. Oh, why did I watch it alone?
• Graded finals! Might have stayed up to 1am to finish, but I was on a roll.
• Skyped a friend I hadn’t seen since senior year of college.
• Total Times Outside: Sixty-Nine!
• Currently feeling: Fairly jumpy. Really should not have watched a horror movie alone, even if it was a horror comedy. Now I’m going to bed super late because I’m feeling a bit jumpy.
• Currently looping: Brandi Carlile’s “Carried Me With You” from the “Onward” soundtrack. It’s so cheerful.

Day Four Hundred and Thirty (5/16/21)

• About two and a half episodes from finishing season one of “The Witcher.” Still on team “I think I just like hearing Henry Cavill say, ‘Hmm.’”
• Group vocal lesson! Then I had to record my vocals for an exercise.
• There won’t be a cover this week because I’ll be posting a dissertation update vlog, which is great, because I really do need to write that chapter. I’m about 500 words in, which is like barely the introductory paragraphs. Tomorrow, I’ll upload the final exam grades, and then the deep dive into this chapter begins!
• Currently feeling: I may also just have to spend a week not commenting on people’s videos. I’m sorry, but I’ve been spending 30-60 minutes per day watching and commenting on other people’s YouTube videos because I have a sinking feeling that if I don’t, they will completely ignore my channel. And this grad student really needs to write her chapter.
• Currently looping: Sarah Jarosz’s live performance of “Blue Heron.” I should listen to the whole EP.

Day Four Hundred and Thirty-One (5/17/21)

• Did the FES cycle. Caught up with “Legends of Tomorrow.” It’s just delightful.
• Music lesson! More riffs. My guitar instructor does this thing where I say, “I have this melody that’s been stuck in my head, I think it could work for a song,” I sing it, and then he identifies the note I started off with and the key of what I was singing. #thatmomentwhenyouwonderifthatisalearnableskill
• Last teaching meeting of the year! And then I input some grades. Honestly, every student should get an A for completing a course over zoom during a freaking pandemic, but that’s not how grading works. Alas.
• Recorded a Dissertation Diaries update video that will go up this week instead of a cover. This girl has some dissertation writing to do!
• Currently feeling: I feel like I have a bunch of song ideas, but no time to actually compose/record/fool around. Tomorrow’s going to be dedicated to dissertation writing. Actually, most of this week is supposed to be geared towards dissertation writing. Today was basically just finishing up TA-ing, and then filming enough material to make sure that the YouTube algorithm doesn’t start ignoring my channel.
• Currently looping: Miley Cyrus’ cover of Hole’s “Doll Parts.” I never realized how well-suited her voice is for this song.

Day Four Hundred and Thirty-Two (5/18/21)

• Actually finalized the grades for the course I’m TA-ing.
• Read something for a friend.
• Therapy!
• Vocal coaching session! I really cannot believe how much I’ve improved in just eight weeks. Holy cow. Now to figure out how to continue to practice 30-60 minutes a day, while also doing PhD things and learning/practicing instruments. #teamtimeturner
• Did some vocal recording for my class. Again, there will be no cover this week.
• Hooray, Mets! I was in the standing frame the other day and missed Kevin Pillar getting hit. That looked really rough, but I’m glad he says he’s feeling fine (relatively speaking).
• Currently feeling: Wrote about 500 more words for my chapter (so now I’m roughly at the 16% mark). Some of it is me writing down things that I’ll have to include later in the chapter, which is good. I’m also worried I’m basing too much of this off of Peter Brown’s work, but I think there’s enough here that’s different. Currently, I need his work (and the work of several others) to lay the foundation for my own argument.
• Currently looping: Aurora’s live performance of “Runaway.” Her voice is just magical.

Day Four Hundred and Thirty-Three (5/19/21)

• Did the FES cycle.
• Finished season one of “The Witcher.” I’m very much looking forward to season two.
• Edited the Dissertation Diaries video that’s going up tomorrow.
• Wrote another 500 words of this chapter. As long as I keep to a 500-word minimum per day, this should meet the end-of-month deadline.
• The Mets lost in the bottom of the ninth, so I switched the channel to see the end of the Yankees game, and what do you know? A no-hitter! Exciting! (I don’t hate the Yankees and I don’t understand Mets fans who do. Sure, cross-town rivalries are fun, but these teams aren’t in the same division or conference, so the only thing a New Yorker should do is root for a Subway Series so that the rest of the country feels left out (and then root for the Mets). Thank you for coming to my TED talk.)
• A friend called from out of the blue just to catch up. I love out-of-the-blue friend calls!
• Currently feeling: The professor overrode one of the grades I inputted, and emailed me about it when I was away from the computer. I felt really badly for not responding as quickly as she wanted me to. And I also felt badly that I fudged a grade a bit higher because I was worried I was being too harsh in judging a student’s performance, when I should’ve just let the numbers (i.e. their grades throughout the semester) speak for themselves. The student earned their grade through their own actions. Bah. #imstilllearninghowtoteach
• Currently looping: Lake Street Dive’s “Know That I Know.” It’s just so much fun.

Day Four Hundred and Thirty-Four (5/20/21)

• Caught up with “The Nevers.” They’re trying to do some world-building, but it’s a bit confusing.
• Posted my third Dissertation Diaries video! Side note: my “Set Fire to the Rain” Adele cover has already hit 200 views in a week! A week! Holy cow!!
• Recorded some keyboards and drum programming for next week’s cover.
• Dissertation writing. I think I’m stuck in the Later Roman Empire because there’s quite a lot of material here. I’m about a third of the way through this chapter. If I can get to the halfway point by Saturday, I should be able to get this to my advisor in time.
• FaceTimed my sister and niece! You know how I’m always saying that my niece is brilliant? Well, she’s about two-and-a-half years old, but she’s got the vocabulary of a four-year-old.
• Got in thirty minutes of vocal practice.
• Got an alert right around midnight of a bomb threat at the WaWa near the Dinky station. What in the what?! The first alert just said that there was a bomb threat at “((LOCATION)).” Great job, Tiger Alert. They did eventually let everyone know where it was, but perhaps they should have filled out the template before sending it to all the students.
• Currently feeling: The experiment in alternating whole-assing two things continues. Basically, I do one thing until I feel mentally tired, and then I switch to another thing until that makes me mentally tired. Or, treat one thing as a task and one thing as a break from that task (which, spoiler alert, is another task). It kind of worked today?
• Currently looping: The Lake Street Dive’s Tiny Desk (Home) Concert. They’re amazing.

Thanks so much for reading! Stay safe, get vaccinated, and enjoy the summery spring weather!