Writing Rituals

Anyone else have work/writing rituals? Like all those obsessive-compulsive things you have to get done before you can dive into your work (or keep you from procrastinating, such as writing this post)? For me, they are:

-I need to put on Chapstick (my lips are always, always dry)
-Put on lotion (again, it may be the weather here, but then I’ll keep looking at my hands on my computer and obsess over their dryness)
-Fill up bottle of water- so that I don’t get the urge to suddenly get up when I’m in the middle of some “profound" thought or quote
-Plug the computer (so that I don’t think about where I need to plug later)
-Check FB (yes, I sure do) 
-Put on/take off scarf 
-Go on Pandora radio station (usually John Coltrane or Mal Waldron)

Then…ok, WERK! 

It's Just Been Too Long...

...to catch up and try to summarize what an amazing first semester I had in grad school and what a fantastically unproductive winter break I had. Instead, I'll just move forward with attempting to write with more consistency. I'm sure this blog will evolve, as my writing and thoughts will, but for now, this is a space is where I ramble and think "aloud/publicly" about where I am with my research, ideas, goals, evolving identity as a student/practitioner/scholar/student, any gripes (in of course, the most courteous and political polite way- I am in graduate school, after all!).

La vida cotidiana of a Chicana in grad school.