Getting back to writing

Today I went to a local coffee shop and worked on my dissertation manuscript. I found a friend from ANJ who is willing to be my writing partner (WP), we were commiserating about how much writing we had to do and how we missed writing in coffee shops. So I asked if she was willing to get together and do some writing and she jumped at the chance.

Today wasn't that great. She was 1 hour late, which wouldn't have bothered me except I ended up having to pack up and move my car so I wouldn't have to feed the meter every hour. When I thought she'd be there an hour earlier I figured I'd take the good spot so I didn't have to drag my lap top and materials very far and that I'd just move it when she got there and could watch my stuff.

The second part that wasn't so great is that she talked a lot. I am at a point where if I got a solid 4.5 hours of writing (in the 6 hours that we were together) that I could send this draft to my advisor, but she wanted to talk a lot more than I thought she would so I really only got about 1 hour before she got there and 2.5 hours before we left.

I am hopeful that things will be better next time. In the future I'll know not to expect her to get there as early as I do, and she acknowledged that she talked too much this time (I was nice and did not agree or even make any sort of comment about this) and that she'll try to keep the chatter to a minimum next time. I like her a lot so I'm willing to keep trying. Plus, 3.5 hours of writing is 3.5 hours more than I've been doing. :)

My plan is to get the other 1-2 hours of writing in tomorrow and send this draft off to my advisor. I really feel good about this paper thus, I'm excited to get it under review.