An update...

There's nothing quite like trying to get in a productive routine, only to be interrupted by the chaos of moving.

On the up side, I think the place I have moved to will be good for my productivity (read 'focus') in the long run. In my 'old' situation ('old' as of Thursday evening), I had a drunken roommate who never lifted a finger to help clean the apartment, and who was perhaps the most obliviously selfish, inconsiderate person I have ever had such a long association with.

Having not had a roommate other than my husband (now ex-husband) for 14 years, and having only good roommate experiences before that, I have decided to chalk my most recent roommate debacle up to experience, and have learned a great deal from it, none of which I will go into detail about now. Suffice to say that any future roommate I have will be researched a little better than the last one...

On the downside, I haven't gotten much done towards my dissertation since my last meeting with my advisor two weeks ago. Packing, moving, and cleaning always take me way longer than I think it should. As does settling into a new place.

Pretty much everything at the new place is still in chaos, except that I have managed to finally get my desk area set up to where it is workable; there is still much to do before it is how I want it, but it is good enough to get me through this work week so I can focus on getting back on track.

I have a meeting with my advisor in an hour... hopefully he will be understanding about my temporary derailment resulting from the move. I'm just going to be honest with him, but also try to reassure him that I am back on track. With teaching done for the summer, I have 19 days until the fall semester starts (including weekends) to focus entirely on my dissertation. I feel confident that in that 19 days I can get into a new routine and make good progress.

To do right now, make a 'to-do'list for those 19 days to show my advisor today...

That's all for now. I just wanted to check in here, confess to my lack of progress, and publicly announce my temporarily vague goal of getting back on track. Now it's time to get to work and make my short-term (next two weeks) goals a little more concrete.