Thesisizing*

As the title of this post suggests, I've finally started writing my thesis. Deep sighs regularly escape my cubicle** at work, and my coworkers know that when they get really close together, such as two or more every five minutes, its time to throw a piece of hard candy my way and perhaps send me on an errand to the front office to stop the noise. I'm a loud sigh-er.

So, yeah, right. I've begun. This means there will probably be more frequent blog entries in the next several months, because my favorite method of procrastination is to write in my blog instead of my appointed task. Because, hey, who needs to write about archival method when I can write a post about...um...the mysterious smell that has emanated from my freezer since Katrina, or the faces that Bret's cat makes when she sees me? (disdainful, the faces are. pure contempt)

My first thesis idea was rejected, because my advisor told me it was too ambitious for a thesis--more a two year project than a two semester project. And also, coincidentally, that LSU had just been awarded a big grant to study that very thing! Apparently my ideas are very in vogue. So now I'm processing a collection of WWI and WWII scrapbooks here at the museum, which will include a study of the ways the museum can implement EAD (Encoded Archival Description) into its finding aids. Sounds kind of boring, i guess, but its doable, and that's one of the most important criteria for me. I know there's an end to it somewhere, I can see what the conclusion will be and I'll know when I arrive at that point. Being able to see the proverbial "light at the end of the tunnel" does a lot for my morale. And maybe that's what I need to remember when I start the sighing.

*Thesisizing: a term coined by a coworker to describe my current mental state. Applicable not only to the writing of the thesis, but the overall state of mind one enters when undertaking such a task.

**Its not really a cubicle, its more like a big concrete room with a divider thrown up here and there.