2008-10-13 - 5:39 p.m.

....so this is thanksgiving....

It's nearly dinner time and I'm having a short break from lecture writing.

It's the thanksgiving holiday up here and so I think this means that I'm supposed to have a day off. My day off started with insomnia. Well, actually it started with Susi screaming at the top of her lungs at 1:20am, at which point I did everything in my power to stop the noise. And then the insomnia kicked in, and lasted until about 3:30am. This sometimes happens when I simply have way too much to do, like now. This time, I just went with it and read a book.

I woke up this morning at 5:30 am when Susi screamed again. This time, I had a sore throat. Susi is crying, no doubt, because of her cold - the one that I seem to be getting now. Great.

We woke up at 7:30am and I've been bobbing back and forth between my desk and the living room.

My parents have come in from St. Louis and they are staying with us for two whole weeks. I wish I could take these two weeks off and just PLAY. But no, too much is going on. I am so woefully behind with this paper. Between committee work, teaching, advising students, writing lectures, and managing our home, I'm at the end. I can snatch maybe 20 minutes of time here and there to write a few sentences, which is simply not enough.

I'm happy that I was able to finish my lecture, though, and I am happy that we all took a break to go out for an hour-long walk in the rain. I needed that. Now perhaps I can start on the paper - oops, no. It's Susi's dinner time, and my ever-important date with a breast pump, and then OUR dinner time. At least I got the lecture done. Sigh. At this rate, so much for getting tenure.