Dr. Cooper also threw me a couple of curveballs in the last few weeks. For one thing, she told me she thinks I'll need to spend some time in Venice before I turn in my dissertation proposal, which means it would have to be a trip I fund myself, because you can't really get funding until you have a dissertation proposal! My exams are going to fall at the end of next spring, meaning my proposal technically isn't even due until the fall, and I need to have it approved in early fall so I can apply for grants. Sean and I were planning on going to France next year (something I promised him if he accepted Yale!) and I'd already planned to incorporate a quick visit to Rome to see Jasmine and Carla, but that may turn into something more substantial (and expensive).
Dr. Cooper also alerted me to the fact that David Rosand, a major Titian scholar who just retired from Columbia, is teaching a seminar at Princeton in the fall. He's definitely someone I need to know, so taking the class makes sense, but I'm already going to be sitting in on Dr. Cooper's class, so it's going to be a lot of work in addition to the work I need to be doing (exam prep). I'm not looking forward to that--nor to driving to Princeton, over an hour, in rush hour traffic on Tuesdays. Sigh. What happened to my wonderfully paid year of reading, hm? At least I don't have to teach, though.
Sigh. I'm so tired, and I spent my entire day doing work--finishing a paper, and planning my lectures for this week. It looked beautiful outside, but I was in here. This semester really needs to end, soon.