Most of my close friends know that I'm a restless person, both literally (insomnia is awesome!) and figuratively. I get itchy when I don't have enough to do. The last few years have been a shining example of this questionable quality. When I started grad school, I was working full-time and taking classes at night; a typical day was homework-office-class-running-dinner-dreamland. Once I started in on the full-time academic life, working 'round the clock was just something I felt compelled to do. My comrades in higher ed are nodding their heads in sympathy.
When I embarked on my new gigs at Campus #1 and Campus #2, I once again found myself in perpetual work mode. I'd spend nights preparing for class and kick out a couple of hours of grading or journal-reading or wireframe-making every weekend. After a few years of running solely on guilt fumes and Imposter Syndrome-ness, long workdays are a hard habit to break.
So I made a new rule: 40 hours of work a week. No more, no less.
Monday nights usually find me in front of my computer, ignoring Heroes while I try to put together the perfect lecture for my Tuesday class. Instead, I am contemplating a third glass of wine while I watch Gossip Girl. I have banana bread in the oven (thanks to a roommate who perpetually over-buys fruit) and that's the most ambitious project I plan on accomplishing tonight. Besides this blog entry.
And, yes, I do feel a little guilty. I'll spend three hours tomorrow morning prepping for class, but if I put in an extra two hours tonight, it'd be that much better! And I'll have an ulcer by the time I'm thirty. So I'll have another half-glass of wine instead, and see how well this experiment works.
Is this the way normal unmarried twenty-somethings live?
Also -- holy hell -- is that Prince doing a Target ad?! Man, I need to watch the CW more often.
