The Ups and Downs

 

My kitchen, the soul of my house ...

Widely known, I am not the keeper of the remote control, unless I am the only one in the house.  We are watching C-SPAN, a channel I wasn't even really sure we had, but let's face it, we have DirecTV, there are thousands of channels of which I'm not aware.  Is this the evening of a historical event of national health care, or yet another path that stops short?  I will not voice my opinion either way.  I am in awe of our elected officials, who can sit in one room and duke it out with one another for hours (did they take a dinner break, is my only question - since dinner is my favorite time of day!).  We have flipped back and forth for the past two hours and not a long break has yet been taken (the NCAA's are the other channel of choice, but so many bracket-busters have shot our chances at small gambling glory that even the most diehard of sports fans - my husband - has given to flipping the channels).  

Obviously I am procrastinating on my research paper, which has about 25 juried references, and about 30 pages thus far, but not a whole lot of solutions on how to empower women to propel the women's movement forward in business.  One glaring solution is to jump ship and become an entrepreneur, but women still face a daunting task in starting their own companies; customers, creditors, vendors - all still have bias against women.  And one's own business is hardly an answer to a better work-life balance.  This paper seems bleak, and I'm tired of bleakness.  I don't necessarily face a glass ceiling, except for the fact that I not mobile for a couple more years.  Hence the Ph.D., a way to gain more skills in one location.  I am surrounded by classmates, more specifically teammates, who don't want to contribute to our team projects, which is a concept I abhor.  One teammate has been invaluable, sharing the same morals and ethics as I.  The other two have only complained about their lack of involvement, and yet two weeks later, after I assured them that their voice is welcomed and appreciated, have yet to hear more from them.  The paper is due Thursday, and I won't send out another notice.  I'll edit and post again, and I know one teammate will respond.  At that point, we're turning it in.  I'm not baby-sitting graduate students when I pay to go to graduate school.  

So yet another down in this Ph.D. journey.  I started an online class last week about writing and publishing non-fiction books, if I can publish my own book and have success, no ... WHEN I publish my own book and have success I don't know what opportunities await me.  But I know they will be fantastic!