I'm exhausted. All this week. Possibly anxiety induced. We have been keeping regular sleeping and waking hours for weeks and it has worked beautifully for accomplishing an impressive amount of reading and research and maintaining an even keel on emotions and moods and even making my headaches and health more manageable.
But as soon as I had deadlines, I couldn't sleep and also had to get up earlier due to some last-minute crammed in make-up lectures and pre-presentation rehearasal sessions, etc. So, this past week, tired and headachy and just generally angsty. I brought in on myself in a way, by having coffee in the evening on Tuesday. But who knew it would keep me up til three and have days-long ripple effects? Well, any reasonable person, you might say. But that's not me.
At this point, I'm one presentation and an environmental law problem question into my coursework. This week, I'm to give a presentation on social partnership (wage and tax agreements) between unions, business, and government in Ireland during the "Celtic Tiger" economic boom of the 1990s through to the current situation. Interesting to research, but not groundbreaking. Since the presentation was originally scheduled for last Wednesday and I didn't get the memo that it had been moved, I'm pretty well prepared for it and took the opportunity to review my project with my professor, who didn't toss me out on my ear for being a loser, so it'll probably go okay.
This week, no official deadlines, but some self-created ones designed to smooth the way for next week, when I have two due and the week after, when there are three. Then some studying for an environmental law exam and I'm home free.
Then it's on to the dissertation, which I'm excited about and terrified of. It's due by September 15th and is my sole academic responsibility over the summer. Yikes. I've meant to tell you all about it, and just haven't mustered the energy. I promise to do so soon, so check back.
Today, Joshua and I went to the Farmer's Market and walked home the long way, through the park. It really is beautiful here right now. So many trees in bloom and several varieties of delicate sage green fuzzy leaved trees, alongside occasional alarmingly colorful arrangements of tulips and something highly sneeze-inducing. We didn't have the camera, so I can't show it to you. Sorry. Maybe I'll take some shots of the lilac and three tulips and hundreds of humongous dandelions in our back garden soon instead.
Judging from the hullaballoo outside our window each morning, I'd say there are some baby birds around. The cat wanders through and the birds spend half an hour shrieking and bobbing around to distract him. Must have babies around somewhere. I can't remember the specifics, but it calls to mind some vague memory of a cartoon character (maybe a bird?) who kind of runs back and forth frantically and wide-eyed, making a panicked racket about every little thing. Any guesses as to what my half-baked memory is trying to recall?
Sorry for the randomness, just wanted to put up some kind of update.
Posted by at April 30, 2006 03:29 PMThe "Celtic Tiger" thing still seems wierd to me, considering that I lived in Ireland in 1992 and at that point Dublin made Tacoma look like Manhattan.
Posted by: DG at April 30, 2006 04:10 PMWell, I'm speaking from my academic ivory tower here. No knowledge but from books. But it is my impression that 1992 was still very early days and that not all that much had probably changed visibly in that time. It appears that by about 1997 things had changed. Dublin is now one of the most expensive cities in Europe for lodging and food. Housing prices sky-high. The divide between rich and poor more stark, and very low investment in public infrastructure, so it might still seem like Tacoma in many parts. I don't really know. Also, much of the economic boom was due to foreign investment, mostly from the US, and the super-high GDP includes money that went out of the country through multi-national firms.
What's interesting to me is the social partnership system, which appears to have contributed greatly to the boom. Unions agreed to wage moderation, the government agreed to cut taxes so workers didn't feel the wage moderation so much. Ireland had such low corporate taxes and the partnership agreement insured wages wouldn't be bargained out of control (and labour unrest wouldn't be such an issue) All hopes and investment were focused on the "knowledge economy," the high-tech boom and luring in foreign investment. It pretty much worked, but definitely left out many low and unskilled workers and those dependent on social services. The picture is more complicated now--low wages still in effect, taxes cannot go lower because infrastructure and social services are in need of updating, but companies are more focused on competition than ever and so everyone fears they'll move to Eastern Europe or Asia if corporate taxes or wages get too high. Of course, the current picture is harder to see, and the social partnerships are getting more complicated, so i am not sure what the up-to-the-minute scene is.
Posted by: Appalachia at April 30, 2006 04:54 PM