Please, God, Let THIS One Work!

Hi, hello, and I´m very sorry to have left you in the lurch! This week has been epic. Rolling power outages at outrageously inconvenient times, and upwards of 7 and 8 interviews a day. I´m working like a dog and am completely exhausted by the end of the day. The power keeps going out at weird times and i´ve had TWO blog posts disappear in a puff of smoke, which is SUCH a bummer. But onward and upward, and so on. Last night I couldn´t sleep because the family next door was having some sort of wild drama and the woman in the house, who by the quality of her lungs i´m guessing is kind of young, was shrieking like a fucking banshee. No words, just the same sort of sound you would make if you stuck your face in a bear trap and then had to cut your head off to escape. She did it for at least 40 minutes, pausing only to draw breath and, in doing so, infuse my bruised soul with the futile hope that this time it might be over.

My back has been spasming up, too, which TOTALLY sucks and it hurts hurts hurts, but hopefully by sunday my endless days of interviews will be wrapping up at least for a day and then i can lie down on a block of ice and OD on muscle relaxants and painkillers, both of which you can buy in startling quantities and strength over the counter here.

The good news is that in a flash of startling brilliance, I think I´ve figured out a way to resolve my current dissertation dilemma that hopefully does not involve another extended research trip in Nicaragua, nor does it mandate faking my own death to collect the insurance and live a life on the lam, unable to face the humiliation of *almost* doing a PhD. Still in nascent stages, but I´m working on it, and that alone is a tremendous relief.

I am completely convinced that the power will go out and I´ll lose this post, too, in 5, 4, 3, 2....