The rain looks to be rolling in soon and I am finding it hard to stay out of the garden. It is the time of year when I have to run around the yard every morning looking for new things � the riotous yellow of the daffodils, finally starting to bloom, the tiny, fragile hepatica lurking under the shrubs, the forsythia known as The Hairy Behemoth that bears a striking resemblance to the Muppet Animal, the strange hand-like unfolding leaves of the hellebores, the bright blue points of cilia drifting through the woods, the purple-green first leaves of the bluebells. Every morning I take inventory.

Work is going well. I am almost done. If only I could figure out the organizational mess that is part 1. I may have to send it to some of my faithful readers to help me figure it out. I�ve lost some perspective on this aspect. It started out organized, but it is the victim of several obsessive points of fascination � tangets of tangents � so it now reads like a bunch of somewhat overlapping essays strung together. It feels a little haphazard to me, even though I know it isn�t. I used to think this was a massive problem, but I�m inclined now to think that it is something that requires a quick fix � the writing of segues, the careful cutting of repeated material. But I think I really need a second opinion. One would think that was what one�s committee was for. But that�s not how mine works, alas.

I�ve also been spurred on this week by e-mailed conversations with a grad student from a school in another part of the country who is writing a seminar paper that touches on my topic. I should probably be more territorial about my work, at least until it is published, but frankly, it�s great knowing there are others who are interested in it. Plus it makes me want to finish faster, since this topic won�t be all mine forever.

Really, the only negative at the moment is that my family is irritated with me for walking around the house incessantly singing �You may be my lucky star,� in a vivid twang to a waltz beat. Damn, but I can�t get that song out of my head.

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