TOTALLY EXHAUSTED OR...JUST GOING CRAZY?

Sunday, May 6, 2007 8:24:29 AM

Yesterday morning I put salad dressing on my scrambled eggs. Not on purpose.

Yep. Had a nice little brunch set out for myself -- toast, eggs, a little side salad, a nice cup of hot Earl Grey tea. Finished pouring on the salad dressing and then went, "Huh. How come there's Basalmic vinegar and oil on my scrambled eggs?"

So, maybe I'm a bit tired. It's what we call "Rush" season where I work, which is at a distance learning high school. All the kids who are trying to graduate with their classes this year have discovered that time is running out on completing the required courses they failed at their high schools and are supposed to be making up as home schooling courses. So, the exams are piling in by the ton. The good news: overtime, baby! I get to take exams home and grade them for time and a half. The bad news? Overtime. I'm grading exams for six days a week instead of the normal five.

These are also the worst of the worst exams to grade. For example, I get all eight exams for the American Lit course from students who leave most of the pages blank or just write, "I don't know," for many of the answers. Lovely. I have to write in all of the correct answers, send out Alternate exams, and a write helpful hints about taking time to study and review, etc. knowing there's a good chance that all eight Alternates will come back together with most of the pages blank....It takes a toll doing that only five days a week and now with six -- Where does that get fun?

Ah, but that's not what's driving me nuts and giving me ICUS (inaccurate condiment use syndrome). Why is it that it's at the busiest of times that I always get the most story ideas? I have two FF fanfics I'm dying to write, a finished outline for a horror novel, and several fantasy short stories that are now on the back burner. With only one full day of weekend at my disposal, I don't have much time to spend writing. And, with the nice weather, I'd really rather be outdoors puttering around in the garden.

Of course, it just might be that I'm making excuses. Wanting to spend more time writing at just the moment when I don't have the time to do it? Isn't that just self-sabatoge and pathetically whiney to boot? No wonder our muses deliver a two-ton load of writer's block when we do have large chunks of leisure time to devote to writing!

So what's the solution? More writing, less sleep, I suppose. Guess I'll have get use to sleep deprivation and eggs covered in salad dressing. At least until the end of graduation season.