Makeovers

I have to say that there's nothing better for dissertation work than being forced to stay inside because of a blizzard (which didn't actually make the meteorological category despite the fanfare, because it didn't snow consecutively for 3 hours, or some such thing like that, which matters not to those of us who know we lived through a blizzard, whether or not it's called that).

It was a veritable parto (a birth), as we say, but it's done: On Monday I finished the 58 pages of my very last chapter, and I'm pretty proud of my monstrito. I would've liked to get it to 60, por aquello de redondear, but it's alright. I can live with 58. And it'll probably get to 60 or a little more once I'm done revising and polishing this weekend, so I'll still make my goal.

After I was done, I took a well-deserved break (after sitting at this computer for four straight days, with only a few breaks to go upstairs to my reading room to do dissertation-related readings). I actually got to open my Everyday Food and Cooking Light magazines for the first time in months.

I still have Elle (a new subscription inspired by watching recorded episodes of this season's "Project Runway" late at night), In Style, Martha Stewart Living and Latina magazines waiting for me, but I'll get to those, too. Probably on Friday when I go get my hair done.

My hair has definitely suffered the dissertation blues. Because of the bad weather, I decided to wash it on my own, which is never a good idea. My hair, which has a temperament worse than my own, doesn't like me to handle it. It prefers being pampered by my hairstylist, who's a magician and can make me look like a million bucks. That alone saves me thousands of dollars in therapy fees, so (as I told my husband recently) as long as I have my hair done and my Starbucks: Bring it on!

(What can I say: I've always embodied a surprisingly contradictory mix of the politically committed and the frivolously superficial.)

After finishing the monstrito, I've slowly been getting back into piles of pending school work, including student recommendations, papers to grade, and classes to plan. But at least I have a few more days of Spring Break to get organized and ready to return to my small college on the hill.

Tomorrow, it's off to the optometrist for the yearly exam, and I've decided to get very cool red frames for my new glasses. That's going to be my "Looking Forward to My Defense" fashion statement for the coming months.

And then I have to start thinking of what I'm going to wear on June 10th. That's going to be the next fashion query, but I'll wait until May to shop for something absolutely fabulous, and Defense-Fierce (as the winner of Project Runway would say).

I was a big fan of Fernando, back when Billy Crystal did his impersonation in Saturday Night Light. His motto: "It is better to look good than to feel good," said with the heaviest of Latino accents, was an inspiration to me many times.

It's actually a motto that has carried me through some pretty hairy times (both in terms of bad hairs days and just bad days period). Now, I'm blessed with so many reasons to feel good, that it's doubly important to look the part.

Outside, the world is starting to do the same, and evidence of the blizzard is slowly melting away. The pretty snowdrops are not dead, and the small heads of the tulips are right where they were weeks ago when they started sprouting. Nature and I are due for a makeover, and we're both going to get it.