Week-in-my-Life: Aug 2012 (Pt. 1)

I know it’s been a while since I last blogged, so I thought I would rectify that by bringing back another one of my random weeks in my life posts, which I last did back in Feb/Mar 2011 (here, here, and here). In some ways it is timely to do this now, as I’ve had a few changes take place in my life. For starters, I’m no longer employed at The Metropolitan Museum of Art. (bklynbiblio readers may recall this post about one of my work-related digitization projects last Dec.) Circumstances worked out that it was the right time for me to move on to something new, and I’m thrilled to say that I’ll be teaching again starting in Sep. I will be an adjunct lecturer at City College of New York (teaching 19th-Century European Art) and Marymount Manhattan College (teaching a survey of Asian Art). I’m also actively working on my dissertation again. My friend KB and I decided we needed to motivate ourselves by being held accountable to someone, so we are writing weekly updates to one another on our progress. In the spirit of unfolding diurnal events during a random week in my life, here’s what has taken place so far (and in all fairness, I should admit that I've left out mention of the daily dips into Ghirardelli chocolates).

SUNDAY 08/05/12

AA, JM, and I take DC to the beach for his 42nd birthday, specifically Asbury Park where we soak up the sand and surf, probably have few too many cocktails but lots of fun, and wind up at tea dance at Paradise. breakfast #1: tea and cereal; breakfast #2: muffin and iced coffee at Pret a Manger. lunch: pizza and salad. dinner: 5Guys cheeseburger and fries, which we eat during a black-out from a torrential thunderstorm that oddly reminds me of Florida.

MONDAY 08/06/12

9:00am = drop off laundry, then call Time Warner because I still have no Internet service for 2 weeks now, find out I have (yet another) service appointment for Friday, would it not have been nice if someone had told me this before now??!! (begin to secretly plot how to destroy them for their arrogance).

9:30am = breakfast at Maybelle’s Café: bacon, egg & cheddar on brioche and cappuccino. stunned to find entire café filled with people who apparently are all out of work, so uncertain if it’s a good thing that I’m joining them. spend next few hours gathering digital images on early Indus Valley civilizations of Mohenjo-Daro in the Punjab for my lecture.

1:00pm = lunch: turkey & Swiss sandwich on multi-grain break with grapes and walnuts

2:00pm = continue working on same project, successfully finish first PowerPoint for one of my classes, including writing out explanations about things as diverse as the Bhagavad Gita and religious concepts like samsara (huzzah!).

6:30pm = dinner: spinach salad with salmon; Netflix movie: MidsomerMurders: Master Class (4 stars, midlands England, creepy piano teacher, fabulous students getting bumped off...what's not to loved?)

TUESDAY 08/07/12

7:30am = breakfast: pomegranate yogurt, ½ multi-grain bagel with cream cheese, and tea

9:00am = begin dissertation writing with reorganization of material, diving head-first into introduction chapter to justify to myself why I'm slaving away on this bloody thing, amazed to discover 4½ pages written.

12:00pm = lunch: turkey & Swiss sandwich (again), this time with leftover pasta salad; Netflix movie = Mirror Mirror (watch about 20 minutes; so not thrilled with Julia Roberts as a bitchy Queen Mum to Snow White)

2:00pm = off to gym, burn off about 400 calories doing machines and cardio

5:00pm = go to library and do more digital image research, this time on Buddhism and Buddhist art in India and Tibet

7:30pm = dinner: chicken & avocado salad at Pret a Manger

9:00pm = meet academic colleagues DJ and PK from London for professional networking drinks at Lyon’s in Village

WEDNESDAY 08/08/12

8:00am = breakfast: egg & cheddar with multi-grain bread and fruit, cup of coffee

9:00am = more dissertation writing; finish another 5 pages (huzzah some more!)

1:00pm = meet CS3 at the Ferrari dealership/store on Park Avenue (hence the Ferrari logo above), where he insists I show my license and prove to them that I’m actually a Ferrari and one of the distant cousins; despite this humiliation, we have delightful and engaging professional luncheon where we gossip first, then discuss at length electronic publishing, digital image rights, and the world of art books today. lunch: Cuban sandwich with plantain chips, iced tea (thanks for lunch, CS3!).

4:00pm = back to library for more digital image research on Buddhist art, suddenly becoming overwhelmed by the reality of how much work is involved in preparing a lecture to teach!

6:30pm = still at library, suddenly realize I should have left half hour earlier and now will never make it to yoga class (groan!), but then strangely bump into fellow doctoral dissertater SD and catch up for few minutes where we commiserate over the non-existent future of academic careers.

8:00pm = dinner: tomato, red bean, black olive, peas & walnuts salad with Lean Cuisine macaroni & cheese and 2 fried chicken tenders; Netflix movie: continue watching Mirror Mirror, but only get 30 minutes in before catch-up phone calls from the Uncle and SVH.

Stay tuned for more...