I'm taking a breather.
The last few days or so have been far too manic... this is one balcony that needs a hammock or something so that I can get away from it all...
We've been working on the monthly report, which is always chaotic, but I had the added pressure of working on a presentation for Verle in Chicago. I swore after getting tendonitis from working on his Mead presentation in 2001 that I wouldn't put myself through that again, but the glutton for punishment that I am wouldn't say no. The problem is, Verle himself doesn't know what he wants this thing to look like until he sees part of it, then he keeps changing it, and the monster starts to grow... and grow... hours and hours later, I start to get pissed off, and curse him under my breath. But it's also my fault for taking on a project from someone who is unorganized as Verle. I should know better! But part of me also refuses to put out something mediocre, even if mediocre takes less time. I'm sure he would've been happy with a presentation that had no animation, less formatting, less colour. The presentation doesn't have my name on it, but I can't take any pride in producing anything less than what I did. Hopefully after my conversation with Ross this afternoon, my bid for a free flight to Chicago is still -- if not more -- viable than before.
Today was the first time I have ever submitted a paper that wasn't complete. My choice was either to have more time to complete the Sociology paper by 1) not working on Verle's presentation, and 2) not going out yesterday with the kids. I devoted the rest of the weekend to catching up on the course material, and it was still a struggle to get this assignment to resemble anything remotely worth handing in.
What I have to keep reminding myself is that I could either be a stellar student with no life, or a less-than-stellar student with a life. It is my own personal choice whether to be one or the other, but it doesn't appear possible for me to be a top student while holding a full-time job (with its own set of challenges), spend time with my family, organize this event in November, et cetera et cetera. What I have to do is to get through everything one deadline at a time and not look back. At the end of the day I will graduate, and then I can look back at the work in aggregate and say I managed to get a degree while still doing the rest.
The taxi driver on the way home from the print job was high-spirited and very talkative, and asked me what I do in my spare time. I had to laugh... maybe I'm still a bit delirious from pulling an all-nighter last night. But then he proceeded to give me his phone number and told me to give him a call. I thought he was pretty charming, but we'll see if I will actually phone. Maybe if I need a test subject for Psychology -- ha!
