Yet it is in our idleness, in our dreams, that the submerged truth sometimes comes to the top. Virginia Woolf

Fifty Things to do when you are waiting on your advisor to finish reading your dissertation proposal

1. Wonder what you advisor thinks of your dissertation…or if they have even read it yet.
2. Play stupid games online that you didn’t have time to do before.
3. Play Lego Batman on the Xbox 360.
4. Read the stack of books that you bought over Christmas, but haven’t had time or energy to read.
5. Stare into space.
6. Watch House marathons for 9 hours (more TV than you have watched in 2 years put together).
7. Resist the urge to go fix your dissertation because your advisor is looking at it.
8. Pack up your closet so you can sell the house.
9. Do some projects around the house so you can sell the house.
10. Call all your friends that you have been ignoring for 4 years.
11. When they don’t know who you are explain…and send them pictures to jog their memory.
12. Make a list of all the projects that still need to be done around the house in order to sell it.
13. Reintroduce yourself to your spouse and dog.
14. When they don’t know who you are explain…and send them pictures to job their memory.
15. Reread your dissertation and see if you can anticipate the changes your advisor will suggest.
16. Go to the eye doctor, and regular doctor, and all those appointments you have been putting off.
17. Stare at the news and magazines and wonder “Who is Barack Obama? When did the election happen? I thought Brad Pitt was married to Jennifer Anniston.”
18. Reread all 7 Harry Potters.
19. Organize your study, and throw out all your comp stuff. It looks much better without 55,000 3 ring binders.
20. Make lists about stuff to do when you are bored.
21. Check out the http://postsecret.blogspot.com blog and see if you can recognize any secrets from people you know.
22. Catch up on all your blog reading.
23. Mail Wedding, Christmas, and baby gifts of all the people that have gotten married and had children in the last four years. (This might require both a wedding gift and a baby gift…)
24. Write thank you notes to all those people you owe thank you notes to. (You might have to explain who you are…they may have forgotten).
25. Shop for houses where you are moving via the Internet. Send 100 links to your spouse.
26. Annoy your spouse with your link sending ways so much that they ask you “don’t you have a dissertation to be working on?”
27. Cook elaborate meals and lunches. (Have an EMT on hand, your spouse may have a heart attack from shock).
28. Call your parents and assure them you are not dead. Ask them to take you off the local missing person lists.
29. Resist the urge to call and check up on your advisor.
30. Carefully examine the state of your hair and wonder when the last time you got it cut.
31. Take a nap.
32. Wake up in a panic and assure yourself that you don’t have anything to do.
33. Work out at the gym.
34. Drive around campus and appreciate it for its beauty.
35. Have a lunch that doesn’t have to be drank from a straw or made in a microwave.
36. Balance your bank statements.
37. Give away all your work clothes as they are at least 4 years too old.
38. Get the oil changed in your car.
39. Have a conversation with someone that doesn’t involve your dissertation topic.
40. Resist the urge to go to the library, and beef up your lit review.
41. Smile at people as you see them in the store or the bank.
42. Order some books from Amazon that you want to read, but didn’t want laying around as a temptation.
43. Go grocery shopping and plan out meals rather than haphazardly throwing stuff in the buggy based on preparation and cook times.
44. Sleep in (for me this is 7:30 AM)
45. Relax.
46. Plan a mini vacation with your spouse.
47. Try not to bother your advisor.
48. Marvel at all the electronic gadgets that have been invented in the last 4 years.
49. Go see a movie. I recommend that 3-D Valentine movie.
50. Don’t whine about having nothing to do.
P.S. I am resealing my cement floor which explains the gas mask.