22 July 2010

RBO Catching up

  • I've been home for just under 24 hours.
  • I've been up for 6 hours, after four and a half hours sleep, 2 and a half hours up, 5 hours dozing, and a few hours before that watching DVR'd Tour de France coverage and complaining about how tired I was.
  • In those 6 hours, I have (among other things) gone for a walk, discovered that my ATM card had expired, found the new one and activated it, written 440 words, satisfied assorted cat needs, and checked e-mail.
  • In that time, I have not responded to student e-mails about next fall (la-la-la can't hear you, there must be more than a month before classes start, please, please), filed anything else from the boxes I left in my study, unpacked any more than I did yesterday, made a schedule for the next month (please let there be more than a month, please), got cash, done yoga, been to the gym.
  • I felt good about my 440 words until I checked e-mail. I have to submit something to my writing group (had forgotten that but meant to do it awhile ago so now I feel that sort of guilty panic even though, really, it's fine); and the friend to whom I sent this essay at roughly its 2000-word point wants to know who the intended audience is. I have been following what I think is advice from Julia Cameron to write for your ideal audience: so, okay, Ralph Hanna and Tony Edwards. Hi! Does anybody else want to listen in? Do you need more information? Okay, could you just hold questions till the end, because I am going to go totally fucking insane (a la Comrade Physioprof) if I can't get a complete draft of this damned thing done before school starts (in a month? say it ain't so). I can cope with revising after that, but I want to finish something besides syllabi this summer. So if talking to Ralph and Tony is what will get me through that, then I am talking to them and we'll worry about other people later.
  • Actually, I can't cope with revising after that, because I have committed to finishing a very old R&R by the end of the fall term, and I just this minute remembered two more Very Important Things I have to do for other people before the term starts, if not by the end of July.
  • Excuse me while I go panic. I will multitask by doing it in the pool, because that might calm me down a bit and even if it doesn't, I will at least be exercised. I mean, I already am, in the mental sense (clearly).

3 comments:

undine said...

But you did get 440 words and it's only July. Keep repeating--it's only July.

medieval woman said...

Hee, hee - I love your ideal audience - Ralph Hanna is routinely in mine as is Joan Ferrante - I know she's retired, but still. I worship her.

Btw, it occurs to me (b/c we've been on conference panels together, etc.) that we work on similar, but happily not in any way toe-stepping-on kinds of things. So, if you'd ever like an extra set of eyes on something, please let me know and I'd be happy to read a piece!

Ink said...

No panic allowed! You are doing great!

And I love the idea about not answering the students re: fall.