I can’t figure out what to write in chapter one of my thesis (the introduction) since I generally treat introductions as the place where I put my thesis statement and an outline of the rest of the paper. Seeing as how I haven’t written the rest of the paper and have yet to come up with a good outline for it, I haven’t been able to work on chapter one like I wanted to the past week…or two. So I e- mailed Tony and told him that I was having major writer’s block and that I wanted to switch to chapter two because the review of the literature should be somewhat easier to go over. He was fine with that so long as I was writing something. He has been sending e-mails periodically with “motivational” ideas to try and keep me going, but I really am rather blocked at the moment. I sat down this morning with the intent to start working on it, but instead I made a sign for our door (albeit a fairly basic one, so much the better) which reads: “No major? No problem!” Heather came up with the slogan.

So now that I wasted that much time, time to work on the thesis, right? Nah. Time to check all my webpages and do some touch-ups on the flowers I made for my sister who has mono. I finally did get the laptop out though, and here I am typing up a rant rather than typing up something for chapter two. Maybe if I forced myself to reread a number of the articles or go over some of my notes, I’ll get back into the thesis mood. I don’t know what I’m going to do though. I mean, I love the research, and I love doing the research but I’m just not getting into this whole “write the damned thing” part. Lately I’ve been in the mood to work on my novels, not on my academics. I guess that if I force myself away from my fiction until the end of the semester, I can try to get back into the thesis thing, but since I’m not taking any classes and I really dont’ have set deadlines for individual chapters other than the ones I set for myself (which doesn’t work, mind you), I procrastinate a lot without a set schedule. I can’t make my own routines. If anything, I’m one of the most routineless persons I know. I don’t even keep the same routine when I’m getting ready in the morning for work!

So the writing part of my thesis is being difficult. I’m thinking about asking the husband to get the first part of his campaign up and running real soon so that I can start making all of the weekend writing time since my days at work are soon going to be consumed with meetings, grading and committees. I hate the idea of having to put my DnD campaign on hold, but this thing needs to be written NOW. We’ve got all of next year for DnD, I guess. I’ll talk to Ian about it some more. It’s just an idea.

I also think that working on the thesis today at work would be easier if it weren’t for my upset stomach. I’ve had to go to the bathroom four times already today, and it’s still unsettled. I don’t know if I caught what Heather had last week or if it’s from the dinner Ian made last night or if it’s something I just came up with on my own, but it’s achy and obnoxious. Beyond that, it’s distracting to constantly have to get up over and over again, interrupting whatever I’m in the middle of doing in order to go stink up the bathroom for a bit. Irritating.

Here’s to hoping that I either get some of my thesis written this afternoon or get some of my papers graded. I have about a hundred sitting on the shelf next to me. Dippy. I need caffeine.