T-minus 310 days and counting

Hi. I've always been a bit horrible at the "first post" thing on blogs, but I suppose a quick rundown would be these high points:

1. I'm a third-year PhD student in early English drama to 1642.
2. My fiancé, Robert, and I are getting married on May 23, 2009.
3. I need to lose at least 60 pounds before the wedding. I am not buying a plus-sized wedding gown.
4. Although looking forward to the wedding, I'm often stressed when thinking about.
5. I'm more excited about being a wife than I am about being a bride. I find this an important distinction.

The purpose of this blog, as far as I see it, will be to help me keep track of the things I need to do as well as my progress in completing them. My goals are simple: increase my activity level while decreasing my stress level. I believe that by doing the one, the other will be accomplished. After a long conversation with Robert last night, I determined that because I have difficulty finding time to enjoy the wedding planning process (flipping through magazines, for instance), I am going to combine that time with my work-out time. We're also going to go grocery shopping together in the not-to-distant future to help keep the one accountable to the other.

Well, in the end I find myself easily distracted and persuaded to procrastination, particularly in light of my impending preliminary examinations in January. I have nearly 300 works to read before January, over all of which I'll be examined. My areas are general drama, Shakespeare, and early British drama to 1642 (exclusive of Shakespeare). Robert is helping me complete the play-reading portion because I find it more enjoyable to read dramas aloud. Aside from the studying I'll have to do, I'm simultaneously teaching World Lit. I in two sections this coming Fall semester.

There is so much to do...and almost no time to do it in. How is it I just want to stare at the television and veg out?