Fall semester: day six
Luckily, the car is surviving. She's still running a little rough at times (mostly on the interstate, around speeds 70-75mph or so) but she's running. I have narrowed down the probable causes at this point, and am now pretty sure that all indicators point to "another spark plug is going out." This would explain the intermittent sluggishness and the sudden apparent drop in gas mileage that I've noticed over the course of the past several days. Mind you, I know I already have two out. This is even more a reason that I must get her to the shop on Thursday after class. Still, she's not running hot and she's driving admirably, if a little roughly. Here's hoping that she lasts me the rest of the week without major issues -- my week is only 1/4 of the way done. Granted, two of my days on campus are short ones, but this semester is going to be a long one overall -- something that I keep saying over and over, like if I keep saying it or overplaying it, it will somehow seem shorter.
In the next, oh, 40 hours or so, I must drive to campus and back twice, teach two classes, and attend two more. I also must read about 100 pages' worth of three different books, make a blog post on Blackboard for one of my classes (the Surrealism class has us discussing things online once a week, apparently), and take care of finishing and printing out my first real exercise for Playwriting. Oh, and to do that, I must set up my laser printer when it arrives tomorrow, and hope that it works without issue.
In six hours, I will get up, shower, infuse myself with coffee, and head to campus to teach my classes. I'm tired, but it's manageable right now. I don't have to leave the house early on Mondays, so today I got up at 10AM and left here around 2. I returned home at around 6:30 or so, getting out of class a little early. If this means that I come home tomorrow afternoon and take a nap, or go to bed early tomorrow night, then that's what it means. I have somewhat regulated my sleeping schedules, but they're not perfect yet and likely won't be for another few weeks.
In the meantime, I'm a bit worried about Lady. She was supposed to make it back to school on Sunday, and the last I heard from her was about 3AM Saturday night -- she called me when she couldn't sleep, from the hotel room about halfway to school where she'd decided to spend the night. She said she'd tell me when she made it to campus safely, but after several messages and two emails, I haven't yet heard from her. Tomorrow's Tuesday. She starts class on Wednesday. My logic, of course, tells me that she's busy registering and moving stuff into her suite, as well as catching up on sleep, but my irrational fear tells me that something may be wrong, so until I hear from her at some point I will understandably be a bit nervous.
One thing at a time, Brandon, I tell myself. You can only worry about one thing at a time. Compartmentalize things. Between the car, my bills and school stuff, taking care of tasks for my students, keeping the household chores taken care of so that things don't pile up (and become insurmountable tasks), and now wondering if Lady is okay -- ladies and gentlemen, my brain is fried. I'm burnt out, already, and it's only the second week of classes. Yes, I like being able to keep busy, but there's a point when busy becomes too busy, and it is at that point where I start forgetting to do things because I have so many tasks to take care of, even if I start making lists. For example, I almost forgot to pay the rent this month -- it went out in the mail today, no worries -- but that's how addled my mind is. I'll either get used to that addled mind or I won't, but that's just an example of something big and important that it's possible that I'll just forget to do, because I have thirty other things vying for my attention or work at any given time.
I guess this is that whole being an adult thing, hm? Well, it sucks. And it's only going to get worse in the coming months and/or years.
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