Overload

I have that overloaded feeling that means I should take a day off. And by "off" I mean "sitting around reading or doing what I want" and not "doing chores."

I took very little time off work during the holidays, and the holidays come with a huge list of things to do, so that time period wasn't really restful. 

This weekend hasn't been restful, either. I spent yesterday shuttling kids around. We had gymnastics and a birthday party. In between those things, the kids and I went to the pet store and bought an aquarium, some gravel and plants, and several kitschy little things to put in the aquarium. It is set up now, with the walter filtering so that we can get our new "fishy pet" soon. Today, I've mostly done chores. I also spent two solid hours helping Pumpkin clean and organize her room with Mr. Snarky took Petunia to see Star Wars (she begged... but he wasn't really that hard to convince). Pumpkin and I headed into her room and started sorting, storing, and generally organizing. We made progress, but we didn't even get to her desk. We'd really let her room go during the remodel. (This is 100% my karma coming back at me: I had a very messy room as a kid!)

On the bright side, I came across a stack of old clothes that fit Petunia now, so Petunia no longer needs new pants.

Also, Pumpkin found several things she'd thought she had lost. It is unclear if a lesson was learned from that or not. Probably not.

I did at least get to start my day with a pot of tea and some work time. I scheduled my Annorlunda Books and Tungsten Hippo posts for the next couple of days, and also posted my second book introduction guest post on Tungsten Hippo- this one is for a horror novella called The Tale of Sawney Bean. Horror is really not my thing, but it does sound like an interesting story.

Right now I should be working on the slides and text for a workshop I give on Thursday. I'm only about 25% done with those, so I obviously need to get moving on this task. However, for once I recognized the overloaded feeling before the pressure went critical... so I'm sitting in my lovely new office with the door closed, drinking a gin and tonic and doing whatever the heck I want. This can only last until dinner, but I'm hoping it will release enough pressure to allow me to make it through the week. My sister has offered to take the kids for a sleepover next Saturday night, so I have an actual night off to look forward to. 

I might take a half day on Friday, too. The weather does not really allow me to do my old trick of having a margarita with lunch at the local mall, and then spending the afternoon reading in their outdoor chairs. Besides, they tore down the restaurant that used to provide the margarita! But I have a lovely new chair in my office....