Paperwork

Too far behind in nearly everything but being behind, I called in busy to my monthly meeting of writers yesterday because my syllabus for one college's new semester and my preparations for workshop 3 of a 5-workshop course at another college are, respectively, not where they should be. This is the drudgery of teaching, even worse than grading papers. Trying to imagine ahead 16 weeks for a full-semester course is painful, and I am hopeful that I can fake it for a week until I get my feet under me.

Dumped into the mix of things is anticipation for a 2-day trip to Las Vegas at the end of the month, a 3-day camping trip in Yosemite the week after Vegas, then in March/April a 9-day trip to England on top of which is tacked a 2-day stay in Chicago as a stopover point to get my feet again used to United States soil. To make everything worse, I'm trying to figure out how to squeeze in yet another trek to Portland, a summer vacation to Colorado, and perhaps a trip to San Diego to show either my wife or one son or another the USS Midway, a ship on which I lived for over 2 years and is now a museum. I'd also like to persuade a friend that I could use the solitude of his cabin for a few days, but when the heck would I fit that in?

No wonder I don't get any writing done or why I don't fix things around the house. I keep telling myself that I've got to quit a job or 2 because I'd much rather have time than money at this point in my life. But not especially confident that the economy will keep its grubby claws off my main employment, I figure I need to keep the secondary and tertiary jobs for a little while longer.

Finding lodging in London and Chicago is a pressing concern given that I leave 10 weeks from today. I believe I have narrowed my preferences to just a couple of establishments, something that will be very nice: staying in 7 different places the last time I was visited Great Britain created too many packings and unpackings of baggage. More pressing, though, are the half-completed syllabus for one school, the class notes for the other school.

Oh--and I won't mention my thoughts about a career change....