Getting down to brass tacks

Since our younger daughter moved out, we have the other two bedrooms in our house back for our own use.  My husband has not yet begun to put together his "man cave," but he's retired, so he doesn't need to get to it right away.  I, on the other hand, have made significant progress in getting my office ready.  Now I finally have a space with a door I can close to minimize interruptions -- complete with a "mean sign" saying not to disturb me unless the state forest or the house is on fire!

I have four bookcases in here, and will be ordering another one. I will also be confiscating yet another from the chaos in what should be our living room, and have on order from Kohl's a 5-shelf bookcase to hold CDs and DVDs.  I'm in the process of arranging my books on the shelves; I'm so anal retentive, I have them classified according to the Dewey Decimal system.  What do you expect?  I was trained as a librarian, having got my master's in library science at FSU in 1970.

But it's great to have this space, and I have gotten a great deal done.  I'm a little late, having had a bout of the flu after I got back home from the University of South Florida St. Petersburg.  I can now spend the next terms at home, writing my thesis, since I have completed my in-residence coursework at USFSP.

It took a couple weeks to fully recover from the flu, though it was an abbreviated bout.  I had a flu shot in October, and am I ever glad I did.  I do not want to think what my bout of flu would have been like had I not had the shot! Temperature up to 102.4 and muscle and joint aches were no fun!

But now I've gotten a lot done on my proposal for my thesis.  I want to get that done in a couple more days and run it out to the member of my thesis committee who is at the University of North Florida.  Then it, and the signature form signed by the local professor, will go down to St. Pete for my major professor and the program director to sign off on.

I've also found some other sources for my research.  I have a stack of books on my desk.  This is a great desk -- it's a large oak roll-top we bought from friends who were done with it.  It has lots of drawer space, lots of cubbyholes for pens, pencils, and all sorts of other office supplies, and a large writing space, with two writing surfaces that pull out.  I have my computer on a wonderful computer desk I bought from Levenger's.  And my printer is on a low stand, with room for lots of paper, that my husband lent me.

So I'm jumping in with both feet and enjoying being able to work with few distractions.