Big weekend here at FPU.....Halloween, followed by massive football game. I am pleasantly surprised, however, by the level of sanity at one of the local coffee shops--my particular favorite, as I can get food with substance, a massive cup of coffee, and a water all for under $5 with good wifi and usually fairly quiet. Big weekend next weekend for most of the Musicology faculty as AMS gathering is afoot in Nashville. I am seriously looking forward to some time to get stuff done and off my desk.

As it is now a new month, I get to buy books.....ok book--singular. I was talking to Dharmonia, and I mentioned that part of my monthly budget is a book budget. Like most things, building a good library should a little bit every now and then.....with the occasional splurge if you're in some place like Hay-on-Wye. Basically I have a list of mostly scholarly books (like my own personal made-up master's reading list) and whenever the new month rolls around I get to buy one, and with Bookfinder I can occasionally get more than one because I find really cheap used books. So basically I'm sitting in the coffee shop trying to figure out what I want to get, that stays within budget. A note to new grad students out there......one of the things I have seriously discovered about living on a TA's stipend is that the budget is king....it takes the guess work out of what to spend money on. Anyway, that's a different post entirely.

I always feel slightly indulgent when I buy things like books or music. It makes no sense, because as a music scholar, I need new music and books to read on a regular basis.....and I won't necessarily always have a wonderful academic library, with wonderful ILL librarians to be associated with. So I'm buying stuff I need, but that I also want.....hence the indulgent feeling.

Not doing well this week on my time for myself (see previous post). I can always tell when I need to take a day or so off, when I wake up and it takes some serious convincing to get me out of bed. The inner dialogue that ensues involves me trying to convince myself that if I can just make it to the weekend, I can sleep without an alarm, but right now, today I have to get up and do stuff.

Also looking at PhD programs, which makes me both really excited and really freaked out at the same time. The one thought that continually surfaces in my head is, "We're doing this now, aren't we?" Mainly looking at the University of Michigan and the University of Oregon right now, but I popped over to NYU's site and it looks amazing. But I can't see a way that I would be able to afford New York.....in fact, one of the major benefits of attending FPU is the low cost of living. Who knows, maybe I'll apply and see what happens.

Lots of stuff to do, so I need to be productive now.

Peace, Love, and Tunes,

Mac.