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September 18, 2007

Is It Just Me?

Or does this happen to everybody else too?

You spend your summer getting ready. You've settled into a routine. Your life is ordered (more or less), at least, the important things like laundry and cleaning and dishes are getting done. You start the semester refreshed (more or less) and ready to go.

And gradually, over the intervening weeks, things start slipping out of control. The dishwasher doesn't get emptied in the mornings any more, it gets emptied in the evenings. So that instead of being able to just put dirty dishes into it all day, they pile up in the sink. Suddenly, the kitchen is always a mess.

You take a weekend off from laundry duty and before you know it, there is no more clean underwear, there are no clean towels. You have a pile of laundry large enough to lose a housecat (or four) in.

The grading, which you were doing faithfully during the week, during your office hours, starts to creep out of the allotted time and you find you're wrestling with it at other moments, sometimes when you're asleep. The same thing goes for lesson planning. And your usually clean desk is becoming invisible under multiple piles of paper. So is the small table in your office. So is the couch.

And even though you try to do the reading along with your students, so that it's fresh for you again as well, you find yourself skipping some of it. Putting some of it off for later so you can do other equally important work. Like memorizing lines or planning lessons or grading.

You have a house cleaner, someone to vacuum and clean the bathroom and mop the floors. So for her, you keep the clutter to a minimum. But somehow, the house never seems to get completely picked up. The "stuff" is gradually taking over.

Saturdays, your one day off, are no longer days for art projects. They're days to lie in bed. And then to transfer that lying to the couch where you stare at things because you're so tired. Too tired to actually get off your butt and do the stuff you need to do.

You choose sleep over posting on your blog. Or checking your email. Or keeping up with the people your blogroll.

Chaos is gradually taking over. And I don't have anything left to fight it with. We cancelled our classes today (my teaching partner had somewhere else she needed to be) and I slept in. I cleaned up the kitchen. I caught up on the reading. I wrote not one but TWO blog entries. I snuggled with the cats, I picked up the house a little bit, I wrote.

Tomorrow it all starts back up again and I am lost. Thanksgiving break will not come soon enough, so thank goodness I'm flying to Boise for Kieran's birthday weekend in three weeks.

If I survive that long...

Posted by sally at September 18, 2007 04:54 PM

Comments

It isn't just you. I swear thinking that I have all my ducks in a row simply just invites someone to come in and not just mess up the nice row of ducks but usually throw a freaking stick of dynamite into the middle of them and send the feathers everywhere!

Just when I think I have got things settled.

Posted by: fire4hairlady [TypeKey Profile Page] at September 19, 2007 09:08 PM

I feel like my merely thinking I have all my ducks in a row calls for someone to come in and blow the ducks into a cloud of feathers, and then it all must start again. I think it happens to others or least also to me.

Posted by: fire4hairlady [TypeKey Profile Page] at September 19, 2007 09:10 PM

And, I didn't mention this part, but I am ALSO coming down with a cold.

Because I needed to be dealing with that, too.

Posted by: Sallyacious [TypeKey Profile Page] at September 19, 2007 09:45 PM

Ohh, feel better.

Also, sorry for the multi comments.

Posted by: fire4hairlady [TypeKey Profile Page] at September 20, 2007 10:32 AM

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