Time to move on?

Sign I'm not the dominant one in the relationship:  It just took me five solid minutes to get the cat (Pigger rather than Nunkin) to move off of her spot on the couch in the study so that I could sit there.  It's the only spot in the office where the internet cord reaches my laptop.  I *hate* that we don't have wireless.

Meanwhile, I randomly got an idea for a story of some sort of fantasy type which I'm now playing around with.  Somehow I ended up deciding it would be a good (or at least entertaining) idea to make my facebook status a request for ideas on multidimensional MacGuffins.  One friend suggested an omnispatial nexus key which, if used, would disrupt the fabric of the space-time continuum.  I love the idea but it won't work with the outlines of the story as they're working their way through my mind.  Meanwhile, I wrote roughly 1000 words of starting conversational stuff and showed it to Brownie on Friday (who has never actually seen any of my fictional writing before, but then neither has anyone else for that matter, something I badly need to change).  He actually liked it (I think - I don't think he was being kind), and we spent most of the afternoon talking through ideas before finding out that a friend was having something of a life crisis and spending the evening with her helping her talk stuff out.

So back to the writing.  I don't want to get into the premise yet, and I need to flesh out the plot/world more before I can write too much.  But I keep thinking that I could do something with this in a way I couldn't with the story I've been working on - that story is too character/not enough plot to be particularly marketable.  I think maybe I could get somewhere worthwhile with the idea I have now.  But (again), at the same time I'm swirling with thoughts that I should finish the project I'm already working on (just to prove to myself that I can, maybe?) and more thoughts that I should be finishing the dissertation (but still don't have any motivation).  So I feel like I'm half-nuts, like I shouldn't be grabbing onto any idea that comes by and start scribbling.  However, I kind of feel at the same time like I very much should grab onto an idea when it presents itself and seems worth working on, because one of these ideas might actually pan out, and I don't think my last project really will.  I'm not convinced it's marketable.

So maybe I shouldn't feel bad about abandoning one project in favor of another.  I can't really say that anything I've written has been a waste of time, even if I don't think I'll be able to publish it.  I've learned from it, and I know I'll learn more from whatever I end up writing that holds my interest.  And then maybe someday I'll manage to publish something. 

However, I still need a day job.