No rest for the weary

Doesn't it seem odd that I was just writing about taking time off last week and now I'm bombarded with work? It's been a heavy homework weekend, complete with around 10 hours (or more - who knows?) in the computer lab listening to Panjabi over and over again, trying to figure out the sounds and the rules that govern the sounds. It's frustrating because this data is real. It hasn't been sorted through by a textbook author or professor to get us to focus on just one aspect. It's a database with 200+ entries - words and phrases that I've collected and transcribed - with absolutely no place to begin! I handed in an assignment that wasn't exactly complete but had a long explanation for why I couldn't complete that section of analysis - there just is no evidence in my data! GRR! Don't get me wrong - I still love this stuff, but I'm the type of person who likes everything to fit into nice categories with pretty labels. Apparently real language data isn't quite so neat and tidy. It's going to take some huge doses of patience and divine inspiration to get through all of this. Next week's assignment is waaaayyy more complicated than this one and I have absolutely no place to begin. I feel like crying...