Stupid GREs!

Ugh. I took a practice test and got most of the math right, but messed up a ton of the verbal, especially the analogy section. The GREs are nefarious. What does a set of abstruse words have to do with my ability to interpret archaeological data? Do I really need a gradiloquent vocabulary? One solecism may be all it takes to ruin my GRE score.

I'm feeling indolent right now, which is why I choose to compose this LJ entry rather than widen my vocabulary. Perhaps this is a fatuity. But how much more can I accomplish in less than 48 hours?

Maybe this entry makes you think I am a pedant. Or that I sound supercilious. (Or maybe I sound urbane.) But really I'm just trying to intersperse as many GRE words as possible, and palliate the otherwise stressful study regime I've taken on.

(And don't take this entry too seriously. I'm really just using this as an exercise rather than reporting how I actually feel.)

I blame desh

http://shygypsy.com/farm/p.cgi

It's eating up whatever energy that would have gone into the GREs. Or maybe I need the break.

Anything to avoid the GREs

I'm still trying to build my vocabulary and failing miserably. levana_b defined some long words for me.

So what have I done today? I went to the gym with honkyredvan, discovered that a lot of what I thought was fat on my left arm is actually muscle, and gave myself a shin splint in the left leg. Hopefully it'll be gone tomorrow, or by Wednesday, since I want to bike to the GREs. And when we worked out I started to count my reps in base 8. And you thought SAS people couldn't do math...

I also worked on the letter for Ein Gedi, which Ben helped me edit and maric23 helped me reedit (and I like maric23's edits better. You're right. "vast experience"= lots of years. It was Ben's wording, not mine.)

And I am borrowing a TI-83 from JB for the GREs, since mine is in RI. I had to go to Hill to get it, and I realized that I hadn't been in the building since sophomore year.

And then I got addicted to desh's puzzle. I want to ask you for help, but I feel like in asking I could give stuff away if we've gotten to different places on the board... But at least I have batshua on my team of teamness.

And levana_b and I made pizza. Yes, you're reading this correctly, I did in fact choose to make dairy food over eating meat in Hillel. But then again I was at Hillel for lunch. There were no chocolate chip cookies today, which is quite sad.

And I got another commission, from A.B. for a Jayne hat. I have to get the yarn from RI, but then I can make it. It'll be a nice break from all the kippot since kippot are crocheted but the Jayne hat is knit. Maybe I should also get some fuzzy yarn sent up and big needles (like size 11 or 13) so I can make myself a new scarf, since my old ones are beat up. I've had them since parent's weekend of freshman year. Wow. That doesn't seem like so long ago.

So I'll try a practice test now, hope I can master the vocab, and then spend the rest of the evening crocheting. And at some point in there I should do the communities reading.

*edit* I took another practice test. I still need more analogy skills, and my reading comprehension isn't so great, but I was rushing and my mind isn't so focused. Ok. Time for the communities stuff to give my brain a break.

Curses!

I completely forgot that I have a Jewish Studies thesis meeting tomorrow. Here's where it starts to get problematic: S.G. and I are in the seminar together, and the dates of the assignments due reflect S.G.'s schedule, since she is writing this in one semester and is graduating in December. And she doesn't have another thesis to write. I, on the other hand, have been pouring my heart and soul into my anthropology thesis (as you all know) and have been pretty much neglecting the Jewish studies thesis. I'm not doing it on purpose, but my priorities right now rank:

1.GREs
2.Homework due this week
3.Anthro thesis
4.Grad school applications and stuff
5.Jewish studies thesis

And I'm still on 1 and 2. Maybe I'll get to 3 this week if I'm lucky. Oh, and I have to figure out stuff for the ASOR conference. Maybe it would be better if I skipped out on it and spent more time thesisizing. I really need to set aside one library day for the Jewish studies thesis. I could do it on Wednesday, but by then the thesis meeting will be over.

And for the meeting we're supposed to have a draft of our thesis statement and paragraph. I don't have a thesis statement! I don't have an intro! Or a feasible outline! Or anything! Nothing at all! It's like asking me to write a thesis on a book that I haven't read. In this case, though, the books are both articles and people. Not only have I not interviewed people, but I ahven't even formulated questions to ask them. I'm soooooooooooooo behind!

I want to curl up in a hobbity ball and cry right now, but that won't help me get work done. I should be nice to myself and take a long bath to get rid of all the pain I caused myself from overexercise today. And I should go to sleep by 12 since I wake up at 7:30 on Tuesdays.

I hate stress. A lot.

I e-mailed Hellerstein. Hopefully she will take pity on me.

Weird coincidences

So it turns out that one of the rabbis on staff for the planning of Koach Kallah is actually an expert on reinterpretation of mikvah ritual in the Conservative movement. Rabbi Elyse Winick. And she was at the meeting at Penn 2 weeks ago (where we got free fleshig Chinese food) and I knew her name sounded familiar. I thought she might have been at the Mikvah Conference in June, but she wasn't, though she said she had wanted to go. So I must have heard of her in general in my miqvah questing. And she said that I looked familiar. If only I had realized then that she was in fact a mikvah expert, then I could have talked to her afterwards.

Anyways, I just sent her an e-mail. Hopefully she'll write me back. It probably isn't enough for a thesis paragraph, but it's a start.

If only I could interview Rachel Adler. But alas, I can't get in touch with her, since I have her name. Bitter irony.