I woke up this morning from an anxiety dream.

My interviews are scheduled for Tuesday.

I have not yet had IRB approval, though I have been told I will get it if I remain responsive throughout Monday.

And as of tomorrow, we will be nine weeks into the semester.

It was the first night back in my bed after a camping trip for Spring Break. I arrived home appreciating every piece of my life: my dog, my stove, my friends, my job security. But the night tore my insecurities from my subconscious. No doubt, I am nervous about my interviews. I have doubts about my ability in ethnographic research. I don’t know what I’m doing.

But I realize that this is all natural in the course of a college semester and in the development of every project. At work, I am developing a website. The build started at the beginning of this semester and should be completed near the end of this semester. So, right now, I am at two mid-points, and perhaps I am doubly scared.

The Positive: I got some Gilroy Garlic

On my drive back north, I stopped by Garlic World and got myself some Gilroy garlic. Naturally, I told my boyfriend all about the rationally constructed festival we talked about during my leadership discussion. As I bought garlic and brought it to my car, I realized I had no other associations with Gilroy other than garlic, and as far as I was concerned garlic was Gilroy; they had succeeded in creating a commercial staple for themselves.

I am glad that I was able to conduct leadership discussion on this article. The topic was close-to-home and easily observable from my everyday. It put me in the mindset to contemplate the origins of tradition and the communal bonding of food, which I hope to observe in my own festival research.