Ready for a vacation!

Okay, so I haven't had a chance to post in a while, but I have a very good reason--sort of!

As an example, this is just the past few days of my fun-filled life (there was some sarcasm intended there).

Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, I worked on dissertation chapter number four, trying to get all the revisions done so I could mail it to my committee by Monday. As I'm working on it (by Sunday utilizing the aid of a few beers), what comes in the mail? Chapter Three from another committee member with the newest set of feedback. I toss it on top of the pile of papers from students that I need to grade.

Of course, it's not til Sunday night that I realize I haven't done the laundry, and half the clothes I own need washed. Oh, the joy of late nights with laundry and a dissertation.

Monday morning, I'm up by 6 a.m. I still need to prepare the class I teach starting at 8 a.m. Fortunately, I've taught it before, so it's mainly a matter of rereading my notes, lectures and planning a few activities. Then the doorbell rings. It's Dave the bug man come to spray our house. Dave only calls the night before he's coming, so most of the time I have no idea he's coming. This was another one of those times. Once again, the house is a complete mess, and I have bras and underwear scattered throughout. So, as usual, I frantically try to stay ahead of his spraying and discretely pick up all my underwear. Later, I realized I missed a bright red pair in the bathroom. I guess he's getting used to this by now.

So I teach my classes and then comes my office hours. I have the best intentions of getting all sorts of things done. Then I realize just how many little piddly things I have to do. Three hours later, I have finished all the piddly things, and still haven't touched the papers.

So, I head off. I stop by the post office and wait in line for 20 minutes to mail my dissertation chapter. Then I run by the bank. I haven't managed to get there in several months, so I still have uncashed birthday checks. Next stops grocery store and pet store--I need minnows to feed our big fish.

I get home and start draining the water out of the minnow bag so I can dump them in the tank. Somehow, the guy got a whole bunch of little guppies in there (barely appetizers for our fish) and three of them plop into the sink. I prop the bag up and try to get the guppies out of the sink, which is nearly impossible since they are only about a centimeter long. I finally get them and look over at the bag. It has now spilled all over the counter and fish are flopping everywhere! 20 minutes later, I get all the fish off the counter and floor and finally into the tank. 20 minutes after that, they are all gone--barely even a snack for the fish! Time to call it a day.

So, I get up this morning. Our house is looking, well, somewhat similar to a garbage dump, so I try to clean up the house as much as possible, picking up all the garbage and dirty dishes, putting dirty clothes in the laundry baskets, making the bed. . . At least it's somewhat presentable, as long as no one looks at the floors. I water the plants, feed the cat, the dogs, the fish. I go through all my bills and checkbook, catch up on a few emails (sorry, I haven't responded to some of you for weeks, but I leave them all bold until I do!).

I'm about to start on those papers, when I remember several things I've kept "forgetting" to do for, oh, several months. The first was calling the phone company. Our phone hasn't been working right for months. People call, it will ring once, then hang up on them. Last week I tried to call home 16 times and finally gave up. The second thing was calling the garbage company about replacing our garbage can. It's been missing a wheel for a couple of months, which makes dragging it to the curb a whole lot of fun (Jeremy refused to do it anymore until I called to have it replaced--that was roughly a month ago). So, I have an hour left before I have to go to work, and I still have to update all my class schedules and that stack of papers is still sitting there. Oh yay, I get more papers today!

I decided to blog instead :)