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September 25, 2006

Manic Monday

A meme for today because I can't think of anything else to say:

  1. What is the greatest source of stress in your life? The obvious answer here would be grad school. After all, I don't think there is any aspect of doing a Ph.D. program that doesn't cause stress: more reading assigned than is humanly readable; the dreaded prelims (in my department a four-hour written exam followed by a two-hour oral exam -- on three hundred books!); the teaching load on top of the regular workload; the paucity of jobs in this field. But another source of stress is worrying about what I would possibly do if not this. Being a Ph.D. student offers job security (as a student, not when I graduate), a steady (though pitifully low) salary with benefits, and the status that comes from having more education than just about anyone else I know. So I guess there are perks that come along with all that stress.
  2. How do you deal with tension on a day-to-day basis? On a day-to-day basis, I try to avert tension by either staying on top of my responsibilities or jettisoning them. When that doesn't work, I get on the phone and bitch to whomever will listen. Massages and hot baths also help, as does knitting until my fingers are sore.
  3. What do you find to be the best way to wind down after a tough day? This is a new one for me, and I'm almost embarassed to admit it, but my current favorite is watching television. These days David and I are Netflixing Six Feet Under, a brilliant though morbid drama about a family in the undertaking business. Television gives me a momentary escape from my own life but doesn't require as much brainpower as reading.

Posted by eklanche at September 25, 2006 12:35 PM

Comments

Try some red wine and watch comedy films, like "Little Miss Sunshine", which I saw this weekend. There's a very therapeutic line in it relevant to your post, "do what you love, and f*** the rest."

Posted by: khgarner at September 25, 2006 04:31 PM

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