Victorianitas

(because what else am I going to do, read the thesis like I should be?)

1. Will you be looking for a new job?
I will be hanging around universities holding a "Will Teach For Food" sign. And if the academics who've reassured me about the job market with comforting tales of post-RAE retirements and departments wanting cheap labour turn out to be mistaken, that will not even be a joke.

2. Will you be looking for a new relationship?
I try to avoid ever looking for relationships. Like looking for snow. I mean, if it happens, it happens, and sometimes it's wise to start laying down grit and salt just in case, but as a general rule, not something to go chasing.

3. New house?
Well, see. If I have to move, it'll be because I have a job, which will be good; except then I'll have to leave my lovely new place, and actually, well, move, which will be bad. So I hope so/hope not/hope so/hope not.

4. What will you do differently in 2008?
I don't know. I won't have a PhD to write, or at least hopefully I won't have a PhD to write, so I imagine I'll be spending large chunks of my time differently, but trying to imagine this is like trying to imagine the limitations of time and space. I look forward to it.

5. New Year resolution?
On reflection, maybe I should have some of these. So: to get at least one new article written, and to get something accepted by a decent journal.

6. What will you not be doing in 2008?
Not staying up until stupid o'clock in the morning sorting out bibliographies, that's for sure. Not sleeping in my office. Not getting into arguments with people I actually like, which I seem to have developed a habit of this year. Farewell and good riddance to all such activities.

7. Any trips planned?
Sadly, no. The diary is willing, but the bank account is weak.

8. Wedding plans?
I think not.

9. Major thing on your calendar?
The dreaded viva in early January. And then (maybe? hopefully?) graduation later in the year.

10. What can’t you wait for?
Somebody to call me 'Doctor', and I am quite willing to legally change my first name to 'Doctor' if I don't get the PhD. Either way, this is going to happen.

11. What would you like to see happen differently?
I'd like the jobs sections of the THES and the Guardian to be inches thick. We'll see, yes?

12. What about yourself will you be changing?
I plan to be a more productive, less stressed person. We'll see about this one, too, but it's got to be easier to achieve with no PhD to write. Unless I have to make substantial corrections, in which case bah.

13. What happened in 07 that you didn’t think would ever happen?
I finished the PhD! This was far from certain for a long time, and I came very close to asking for a three-month extension, but nope. Done.

14. Will you be nicer to the people you care about?
I plan to be.

15. Will you dress differently this year than you did in 07?
I seem to be entering a knee-length skirts and heels phase, so yes, probably.

16. Will you start or quit drinking?
I try not to mess with things that are working fine as they are.

17. Will you better your relationship with your family?
I get on well with most of my family most of the time, so I'm happy with this one. Hopefully I'll be able to see a little more of them, though.

18. Will you do charity work?
Probably not, no. Sadly. Unless we're counting emergency unscheduled office-hours as charity work, which we might just be.

19. Will you go to bars?
'Bars' implies somewhere upholstered in chrome and white leather charging £5 for watery Coke and cheap vodka, so probably not, no. I will, however, be spending time in pubs.

20. Will you be nice to people you don’t know?
I think I am already fairly nice to people I don't know. Maybe I'll smile more at irritating patrons at work.

21. Do you expect 2008 to be a good year for you?
I've finished my PhD and a bunch of my friends have moved away, and now I have no academic job but a lot more free time, so it really could go either way. I'll vote for 'yes', though.

22. How much did you change from this time last year till now?
I'm a lot happier about my academic work, and a lot more confident about my own ability to get things finished.

23. Do you plan on having a child?
No! Not unless I can talk it into marking essays for me once it reaches 6 months, which I believe is generally frowned upon. (Which isn't to say that I'm anti-children as a policy, or as a future life choice, but this is Not A Good Time.)

24. Will you still be friends with the same people you are friends with now?
I hope so.

25. Major lifestyle changes?
Obviously, I plan to walk into work every day, cook all my own meals, and produce one article every couple of months, but as this is January, well, we'll see.

26. Will you be moving?
After carrying all my books up 61 stairs? Not if I can help it.

27. What will you make sure doesn’t happen in 08 that happened in 07?
I'm going to back up every single important file 18 times, so that I never have to spend an afternoon trying to retrieve something that vanished into the ether. I would also like to not get trapped inside my living room with a very angry hornet again, but there is very little I can do about this except for prayers to the hornet gods, and the hornet gods do not seem to listen to the prayers of the unwinged.

28. What are were your New Year's Eve plans?
I watched Will Smith fight vampires, and then I went to a party, played Anti-Karaoke (for which, I'll have you know, my 'Someday I'll Be Saturday Night' done in the style of Kylie singing 'Santa Baby' came a joint first with my best friend's boyfriend's metal version of 'Hungry Eyes'), danced on the floor, got glitter in my hair, and threw wads of Silly String at people. A success.

29. Will you have someone to kiss at midnight?
I did, in a platonic sense.

30. One wish for 2008?
Doctorate. Pretty, pretty, pretty, please.