First step

First things first. I'm starting this blog to chart my journey from a lowly Master of Arts to doctoral student, and onwards, hopefully, to holder of PhD. I've often found myself halfway through a particular experience, or perhaps at the end of one, and wished that I had made good on my often-uttered promise to write things down, as they happen, as I feel them, and as they are. There are several notebooks on my desk with half-remembered, half-finished, and half-truthful jottings; this will be my new cyber-Moleskine (bought for the hope that it will turn me into a new Chatwin; found dusty under a cold cup of tea).

So here I am- just over 24 hours since I heard that I had been awarded some funding to do my PhD. It was something I'd been hoping for for such a long time, but strangely I was not nearly as excited as my dear husband. When I read the email (I do rather wish it had arrived in the post instead...) I only felt a sudden thunk of responsibility: I had been trusted to be not only hard-working enough to complete this task, but also to be original. GAH! Three years seemed suddenly a long time, when before I had been aching to have those years right now. But today, I feel light-headed and almost giddy; it's some good news when there has been rather a dearth of such tidings. Just then as I typed that, my knees had a funny shiver and my tummy turned -a true sign that I am not only excited, but thrilled at the prospect of reading and writing for three whole years about Shakespeare! and Jonson! and taverns! So I answer Hal's request to meet him tomorrow at the tavern in Eastcheap, with a thundering YES---