Wednesday, February 23, 2011

Pondering the source of a sour mood

I'm in a sour mood and don't want to do any research/writing today.  Possible reasons:

1. It is a great ski day.  But I've skied several times this week--Wed, Fri, Sat, Mon.  I don't think I'd have a good day skiing, but still I'm sour because I'm not skiing.

2. After two days of working till almost midnight and getting up at 5:30am, I am tired of working--even though that was teaching work, not writing work.  Yesterday was an intense 11-hour day--really nonstop work. I'm over it.

3. I know that since I'm not skiing, I really should go clean up my office.  I've only been doing the essentials in my office--prepping for class, grading, and meeting with students.  I wonder if I've put anything at all away this semester (I do throw away my trash--I'm in a messy stage, but not a gross one).

4.  In addition to office cleaning, I have to grade 5 papers.  Plus I have to read some work that colleagues/grad students have sent me--not drudgery, but a step below my own writing on my personal preference scale.

5. The writing I have to do involves turning a 10,200-word paper into a 9,000-word paper.  Not the most interesting task.  But my co-author/student doesn't seem to know how to do that at all (though she's great in other aspects, thank goodness).

6.  My daughter lost her jean jacket after wearing it one time. 

7. My daughter's little friend was a major mess-maker last week.  The major messes/disasters have always been committed by my kids' friends, not my kids.  Examples?  Neighbor boy spilled water on my laptop (yes, it was ruined).  Daughter's friend wrote her name in marker on the carpet--and she wrote it BIG.  Same friend, same day, put real lipstick on (apparently all over her face) and then used a bathroom towel to wipe it off (how can I get so much lipstick off a towel?--there is a square foot of bright red lipstick seemingly caked on).  My friend's daughter used up all my food coloring and several spices making "soup" with my son--that was an expensive soup! My son (5 at the time, 2 yrs younger than the girl) regularly played with food coloring and spices to make concoctions. He was always careful and only used a bit of each.  The girl went crazy!  And then her mom, my "friend," said, "Well, what did you expect?"

8.  My son found gray hair roots on my head and freaked out: Oh my god, do you have gray hair? Do you dye your hair? My mom is old!!  Duh.

I should have just gone skiing.  But hopefully I'll finally kick my cold by just hanging around all day.

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