Wednesday, November 12, 2008

Returning to Earth

Did you miss me? I haven't had much time to post lately. I've been working "overtime" at work, which for me means that my hours approach 40 (or, occasionally surpass it). There once was a time when I'd barely notice 50 hours in a week. My record was up around 90-100, and I once worked a 23 hour shift. I know, I know, I have nothing on my doctor friends.

Now, though, my scheduled 32.5 already pushes the membrane of my to-do list. Like an already-full water balloon, there is only so much give before things burst. My coworkers put in way more hours than I did, but for many of them, that 60+-hour week isn't quite as catastrophic. There are few in my group with young kids, and fewer still with a spouse who also works full time.

So, the big deadline has passed. I have slept. My family is still intact and the house and laundry piles are recovering. I'm still working on NaNoWriMo, attempting to write 50,000 words of a novel by the end of the month. Believe it or not, that's a pace that is not bad for me--less than 2000 words a day, which I put out in about 1.5 hours (after bedtime, normally). I never said they were good words, btw. Last time I did this, I threw away about half of what I wrote when I revised later.

Even with NaNo, I am looking forward to a little breathing room, at least between now and the holidays. One day off a week, more of them with the kids (yes, I'm a bad mom...I've been known to send the kids to daycare and stay home from work so I can do housework and run errands and be productive). I should get back to my weekly step aerobics, which I've had to skip for a couple of weeks now because of schedule conflicts.

No promises on the blog posts, though. I plan to be a little light between now and December.

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