October 30th

It is September 7th today, and it is a pretty nice, bright day. And what am I up to? That’s right – I am WORKING ON MY SSHRC AND OGS APPLICATIONS for October 30th.

sigh. My ongoing feud with these demoralizing and excruciating things continues for at least one more year. A proposal to write, an application to fill out, a CV to pad… So much to do in such a short time, for ABSOLUTELY NO GAIN.

And before I get a million comments and emails shouting, “This is your year, Holly!,” I should warn you I am pretty realistic about these things. Hollys of my variety do not win $35,000 research grants… It just doesn’t happen.

So, here’s to you, SSHRC, may you live long, alone and despised, and then die of genital rot. You are the bane of my existence every year, and, no, I can’t thank you for keeping me humble. For, you see, your form of humble is the bone-crushingly, chilled sort that makes me question my right to breathe, let alone be in PhD. I just can’t support that kind of torture; it is against the Geneva Convention.

Yay! Visions of rejection! What a great way to start off a new school year!


(PS: To take the edge off, I am throwing caution and flab to the wind and eating something chocolate. I lost over ten pounds in August, and I am pleased, but not even farm-fresh Mennonite apples perk the spirit in the belly of the SSHRC monster – sometimes you just gotta do what you gotta do.)
*