The frustrations of doing research

Quite a considerable amount of my research process involves waiting, getting bored, getting frustrated, trying things that fail or lead nowhere. In the last 24 hours I have had the following experiences:

• Got bored while waiting for an interview to be arranged. Expected it to happen on Thursday. It eventually happened on Saturday.
• Visiting someone, who then doesn't want to conduct an interview.
• Ringing someone, to find they are not in the office for most of this week.
• Going to the municipality on a Sunday, only to find the door locked shut. Then remembering Ramallah is a Christian municipality, so even though the city starts its week on Sunday, the municipal workers don't come in until Monday.
• Tried to do all of the above with blocked sinus (allergies).

Despite the banal nature of these events - these are very much the everyday of conducting ethnographic field research - I still get frustrated/bored/disappointed, and feel like things aren't going well. When I feel this way I remind myself that I must manufacture some optimism as a kind of energy to fuel further endeavours. This isn't always easy.

At least my sinuses are better this morning, and S. arrives for a visit soon