Wednesday, February 27, 2008

Calling for the Check

It seems that there are any number of pithy phrases regarding stress. There's the one about the two-ended candle, the one about recompensing the piper, and so on. Well, it seems that I delayed payment as best I could, but that finally my bluff that "I never got that, so I shouldn't have to pay it; can't I at least have a few extra days; oh, that - that's in the mail" was called by The Powers That Be. I've been revealed as an inept juggler who tried a couple of balls too many.

In short, I'm a stress-puppy just now. I've been one for the last week or so and probably will be for another week or so. I know some people thrive on pressure and I do tolerably well, but it's not something I actively yearn for. My friend Stacked Librarian has a theory that this is just delayed stress from the book-writing project bubbling up to the surface. I'm not sure, but I think that no one is indispensable and right now, I'd really like to take about three days off to test the theory. Alas, I teach and that's just not an option. I like teaching, so I don't want to not be there - substitutes never do things quite the way I want them done. (Did I mention my tendencies toward control-freakism that are also plaguing me just now?)

Sigh.

Oh, for a late-February snowstorm. As it is, I'd better dig out the karmic checkbook - that piper's starting to glare at me.

3 comments:

Unknown said...

I think we all have the same feeling and it could be that your book writing stress is finally bubbling to the surface. I hate that I have been absent - but you know where I am if you need to just vent some frustration. I miss our Firefly episodes - we must resume them as soon as the Buffy class is over.

Librarian Who said...

I think you simply controlled all of that stress for as long as you could and now that you have a breather from the book-WHAMO!
Or else someone has just poured some sort of crazy inducing chemical into the water table.

Dale Guffey said...

Thanks. I know it hasn't been pretty for any of us recently and I try to remember that everything is cyclical, but that doesn't make the last little bit any nicer to be in the middle of.

But I have a feeling things are about to turn the corner.