Jitters

I'm giving a presentation tomorrow on a few early 20th-century illustrations from our collection and how they present a nostalgic, idealized view of women (and the implications of this), so it's rather ironic that I just spent the last 20 minutes plucking my eyebrows. I'll probably wear mascara tomorrow, too. And heels. Idealization of women, alive and well.

The paper is written, the images are picked, I've thought a bit about some questions that may arise (that is the scariest part!), and I've got my outfit chosen--purple tights, of course, though I'm not sure on a scarf.

It's odd the rituals we have when something kind of big is coming up, and I've actually gotten tremendously better at dealing with talking in front of people--teaching and seminars are making that a lot less scary. Still nervous, but I'm not pacing. Yet. I'm going to reward myself for doing this with Ethiopian food next week and seeing Shrek the Musical with some friends. I'll cook a big breakfast tomorrow morning, listen to some show tunes, and try to distract myself as much as possible.

This isn't really an important post, but this paper and archival research are the main things that I've accomplished this week. So I should have more exciting things to report in the next few days, but for now: a view into the scarier aspects of academia! Send me good vibes tomorrow at about 1 pm, and I'm going to go back to watching Iron Jawed Angels. I get to talk about suffrage, Mary Wollstonecraft, and Mad Men in this paper--and really, what is better than that?