Hitting the Wall

I knew it had to happen. I've been doing work at a ridiculous pace, to the point of feeling guilty when I'm not either doing something for school or the house. It was like "idle hands are the devil's playground" had suddenly made itself my motto.

No more. I haven't abandoned my work ethic entirely - not at all. But it's some effort to focus on work again, and I spend more time aimlessly entertaining myself. As long as I don't let it go to far I think it's for the best; I was feeling a lot of stress these last weeks, productive as they were. I wasn't sleeping well, and the physical manifestations of stress I suffered from so much last year were creeping back. So a release valve is no bad thing - again, if I keep it under control.

Like right now. What I would like to do is continue fiddling with photos from my trips on Picassa and pricing out mat and frame combos. Instead, when I finish this entry I'm going to go read something for an hour - Eliot, London or Agamben (to get it out of the way). It's mostly because Romola sucks and I didn't realize The Iron Heel was a book and not a short story, but for the first time in awhile I am behind in reading novels for class.

But the real problem is my schedule. I hate it. I hate it so much. I am so over being obligated to attend things that it's a struggle to make any other kind of time commitment at all - social, shopping, gym, whatever. And I've already blown off a thing or two and it's week four. I've got to come up with a strategy for sucking it up better than I have been.

Tonight, I will watch 30 Rock season 3 while cutting and peeling apples, then make apple crisp, then read some more of that dratted Romola before bed. And then all I have to do is make it through my writing center shift and it's the weekend. Blessed Friday, with only one thing in it. My homework this weekend is reasonable - working on London, finishing Eliot, some articles for comp I will likely only skim, and class prep. Which reminds me - anyone with tips on teaching "The Wasteland," preferably along with an intro to the idea of close reading, have at. I had my first student come to office hours this week, and his issue? "I just don't understand any of this poetry at all." I was like, you and me both. It felt like more of a failure than almost any other conference I've had - as I wasn't ready to teach him how to close read then and there, I had little to say. I did tell him that A) he wouldn't have to write his first paper on the modern poetry and B) that the exams probably wouldn't ask him to explain much in the way of "meaning." But still.

Okay...on to reading. Hurry up please it's time.