One Crazy Semester

If you'd asked me when I was finishing my first semester at SFU back in '98... and I remember it clearly, because my last exam was (painfully) on the very last day of the exam period, and in the last time slot at 7:30pm... if I'd still be in uni 11 years later, I would have said you were insane. But, here I am, and my poor students who wrote their exam on Monday unfortunately had the last 15 minutes of their test interrupted by the fire alarm! About 50 of them (out of 135) had still not finished by that point, and whilst the university's official policy is to make everyone rewrite the entire exam in such situations (totally ridiculous), the professor was determined enough to make sure that didn't happen. They now just have to go back to school this coming Monday and finish writing the rest of the essay question they were working on. Thank goodness. And it means that I've managed to delay getting my exams for a few more days, which I'm certainly not complaining about either!

Beyond the forthcoming exams, life has been very busy (hence the ridiculous length between this post and the last one). Whereas when I last wrote, I had just done my first performance back in Canada, this evening I just finished my last one of this year! I did a couple in between as well - a show in Hamilton that was a fundraiser for local artists, as well as one in Toronto for the "Night at the Indies" 3rd year anniversary. Whilst I was in Hamilton for "Sin Circus", as it was called, I did a pin-up photo shoot with my friend Marsha of Black Rabbit Photography, and it was pretty awesome! I'm very pleased with the results, although I admit to being initially skeptical when she wanted to dress me up like a creepy doll, lol.

This evening's performance was at the faculty talent show that my friend, Victoria, and I co-organised and co-hosted for the second year in a row. I have to say, our roles as "ringmistresses" went fabulously! We also each danced (she does bellydance), and both acts went over very well. (Even me doing burlesque in front of my faculty again... although there weren't so many profs in the audience this time. Perhaps they got too much information about me last year, and decided to just avoid it altogether this year!) The other performers included a flamenco dancer, opera singer, singer with violin, mbira, and the faculty's music collective. I continue to be amazed at the extra-curricular talent possessed by people in my faculty - but then, perhaps the fact we're overacheivers (and in more areas of life than academics) is part of the reason we have ended up doing PhDs!

My dissertation proposal is finally coming along, too, which is really exciting since I've finally found a focus for my research! I'm going to broadly look at museums and social inclusivity, and more narrowly examine the bodily display of the Other in museums through 3 case studies. (Okay, I know this may seem like confusing jargon to some of you reading this, but all you really have to know is that it's pretty freakin' cool. Especially if you're a museum geek like I am.) However, I still only seem to be able to write when I work nocturnally. And yes, that explains why I'm writing this at 3am. It just seems to be the only time I can focus. I've adapted well to the sleeping in - this past Sunday I actually managed to crash until 4pm after going to bed at 5am! - but the mornings I have to get up early for one commitment or another are pretty rough.

The proposal is due on Tuesday, and I still have a chunk of work left. Tomorrow, however, is going to involve decorating my Yule tree with Mr. Mowgli (now that I've reclaimed my living room from rehearsal chaos), since I'm cat-sitting for a friend over the holidays, and I think it's wise to do that sort of thing before a six month old kitten arrives. I'm having friends over for a Yule feast on the 21st (the winter solstice) and Xmas day itself is going to be nice and quiet with just me, the cats, and a bottle of wine. Regardless - it's not quite time to relax yet!