A Case of the Mondays

Starting off the week:

Sunday evening, grading until 11 p.m. Finally finished all of those midterms.

Monday morning, 12:01 a.m., lying awake in bed, tears rolling down my face, anxiety attack. Panicking about tenure. Briefly contemplate sending teary, panicked emails to various mentors. Resist temptation.

Monday mid-morning. Map out work plan for the week. Realize I can get the worst of the deadlines completed, especially if I am extra diligent with my free time on Tuesday. Block out a large chunk for just writing. Feel better.

Monday late morning. Run into departmental mentor. She jokes that the year right before tenure is when all professors should up their meds. All doctors are sympathetic, since this is such a rampant college town with stressed out professors. She jokes that all you have to do is say the word "tenure" and the prescription pads will come out. Secretly wonder what these meds are, and how I can get my hands on them, but then realize she is probably not talking about narcotics.

Monday lunch. Area mentor sits in my office and tells me it will work out. "Slam dunk," he says, quietly. I say, "Yeah, but you always have a super rosy view." He says, "I wouldn't have such a rosy view if the situation weren't so rosy." I don't believe him, but feel better anyway.

Monday afternoon. Preschool called. Milo has a temperature of 103. Jake leaves work and takes him home.

Monday evening. Come home to see that Milo has copious amounts of infected stuff oozing out of both eyes. Pink eye?

Realize I need to scrap work plan and stay home on Tuesday, keep Milo out of school, and take him to the doctor. Briefly wonder if he'll need to be kept home all week.

On the bright side, so far, Nora seems fine. (KNOCK ON WOOD)

Life was easier when we had a nanny. Kids can stay at home when they are sick with the nanny. Now, when they are sick, we have to miss work. There is no wiggle room. No time to miss work.

Life would be easier if we lived anywhere near family, or any kind of support network at all. But we don't.

Realize that being smart and hard working doesn't always carry the day. Sometimes you're going to end up screwed no matter what you do.