I, Muehlenhaus. U, Riedermaus.

It's amazing what a difference a week makes. Whereas last week I was emotionally distraught, had a mountain of work accumulating on my office desk, and was really looking forward to a week off from lecturing, this week I am feeling much less miserable, have made a dent into the mountain of work that had accumulated on my office desk (notice: it is not still growing, which is a positive change), and I can't wait to get back into the classroom.

One reason for my positive outlook -- I not only finished coding 50 maps, but I figured out how to export my data from Atlas.ti into SPSS for descriptive analysis. I can now cross tabulate different maps in my sample for similarities and parallels among their visual manipulations. If this doesn't make sense to anyone, don't worry, I haven't figured out how to communicate it in words yet. That's what my dissertation chapters are for. Suffice to say that I overcame a huge methodological hurdle this weekend. It all works as I hoped it would! I can't believe it!

This doesn't guarantee interesting results, though. That is still something I have to keep my fingers crossed on, but so far I have uncovered enough preliminary information to present at the AAG conference and probably write a publication, which feels really good. In fact, recently I have been craving an opportunity to publish. Perhaps due to all of the job applications I wrote; I was stung by the writing and research bug again. It feels great, because I haven't felt this way since I was finishing my Master's thesis. It means I am finally researching something that interests me again. Yippeeeee!!!

Since I have been on a roll with applications recently, I decided to spend most of last night and three hours this morning writing a proposal and filling out an application for a fellowship. I have no idea if I have a chance for it, but I actually kind of missed applying for something this week (perhaps I am suffering from a warped, academic version of Stockholm Syndrome). So yesterday at around 4pm, I just sat down and started hammering out a six-page proposal. I finished it before 9pm, went downstairs and watched some TV with Birgit, and played a round of Venture. Then this morning I woke up, and since Birgit and Mette were still asleep, I decided I should proof and touch up what I wrote last night. I sneaked upstairs and worked on the proposal from 8 until 11 and it is now done. It feels great to throw something else out into the wide world of academic jobs and funding!

I still have a pile of grading to complete this weekend; so my attention now shifts to that. I shoveled and walked Mette around the lake this morning, so now Birgit and I are off to a coffee shop to spend the afternoon making finish the piles of papers that are perched perilously about our house -- on top of the couch backrest, on the edge of a coffee table, on the dining room table, on the edge of my desk, and even on our bedroom nightstands. She normally has more grading to do than I, but this week I think I have her beat. I dread the day that Mette gets bored and just snipes a student's paper and eats it.

That's about it. I think I have truly recovered from the Ben incident. I am sure it will be awkward at times, but I am past the feeling sorry for him, feeling sorry for me, being mad at him, being mad at me, and several other stages of grieving. Now I'm just kind of ready to make my cart class incredible, have fun teaching at Macalester, submit something for publication, wait to hear back from these job apps, and plan Birgit's and my trip to France this summer -- I'm going to be Godfather! Yeah!