Monday, October 1, 2007

Net result

3 hours writing, 0.5 hours reading, 1 hour emailing, 1 hour planning, page count = 135

This week's monitor is Laura Sumner, in Oakland. (Used her maiden name on Friday - whoops!) Laura is a grad student in Art Therapy, a talented collage artist, and happily newlywed. Laura and Matt went to Costa Rica on their honeymoon, where they saw all kinds of cute animals, including the curious coatimundi. Welcome, Laura!

I finished going through the manuscript today. I took out another section that featured the previous 3-state comparison, and added in material indicating what remains to be written in the empirical chapters - a net gain. From here on out, it looks to be all adding new material. After the great 6-day revision of the whole megillah, the net result is 21 pages edited out, 14 new pages added. Not bad. A good bit of the new material is placeholders that need to be expanded upon, so that gives me a clear direction for where to go next. It also happens to involve the additional data that I'll be gathering in Colombia starting next week, so that's good timing.

Reading-wise, I looked at a source on decentralization in Colombia, and prepped for my meeting in Princeton tomorrow. I continued to set up contacts and meetings in Colombia, and confirmed my trip to the Bay Area in December to get final signatures and file the dissertation. I haven't been reading as much as I'd like the past week or so, but that will all change next week, when I'll be up to my eyeballs in reading material. The challenge then will to keep up the writing each day so I can process the new information as it comes in.

Yesterday, we went back to the Red Hook Ball Fields (see pix at right), as this will be our last chance to go together before the season ends on Oct. 21st. I tried the seafood rice (a cross between paella and risotto, with lots of sauteed peppers - good, but I'd try the tuna soup next time instead) and the Colombian booth, which had empanadas (OK) and chuzos, aka kebabs (yum). Continuing the warm-up for Colombian food, I made the late-night pilgrimage to the #1 NYC food stand, according to New York magazine: the Arepa Lady, in Jackson Heights, Queens. She's only open on weekends, from 10pm-5am (yes, you read that right), so this would require a special expedition. My impending trip - and the Arepa Lady's own upcoming vacation - spurred me into action. All I'll say is that the opening hours are based on a sophisticated understanding of market demographics, Latino-dance-bars-on-Roosevelt-Avenue division, and that you see some interesting characters on the F train to Queens at 2 in the morning. The chorizo with lime was delectable, and the arepas nice and cheesy, but nothing can erase the memory of my favorite Bogota haunt in '03. A dusty storefront on the street between the TransMilenio stop and the National Archive, it had a grill, a crate of soda, and two items on the menu: cheese-stuffed flour arepas, brittle and salty, and juicy chorizo on a stick, both liberally sauced with bright-orange, earth's-core-hot habanero salsa. Please Jesus let the man in the cowboy hat still be there next week.... In other street-food news, the Vendies were this weekend (we were too slow to get tickets). The dosa man of Washington Square Park emerged victorious. With two friends at nearby NYU, I'll have to make the trek soon, I guess.

2 comments:

Laura Sumner said...

I am overlooking the late time of your posting because of the completion of the revisions- having placeholders for future expansion is gravy! Good amount of writing time.

So your completion date is now set- you're on the home stretch! Sounds like you have a solid plan.

Looking forward to your visits to the Bay Area. Is there anywhere around here to try this Columbian food that you are describing?

Chris said...

That's a good question, about where to get Colombian food in SF...there was a place on Mission or Valencia that I passed a few times, but never went to...sounds like something to explore in November!