This might be a bit of a long one... it's been a while (and no, that's not a euphemism ;o)

Have you ever noticed how when you are about to go on vacation those carefully protected and established time boundaries about work -- the ones you set for yourself so you can keep balance in your life -- go right out the window as you try to get everything done that remains on your to do list?

Although I did it to myself, I still haven't had a break since last Tuesday. By not having a break, I refer to the fact that between homework, preparing curriculum, going to class, grading papers, and spending thirteen hours at Church on Sunday, my average night's sleep from Wednesday through Monday was about 4 hours per night. This week was no better as I had three less days this week to get the curriculum done for while I'm gone. I managed to finish everything by eight o'clock this morning, and then I took a two hour nap and went to class late.

Since there are a lot of clergy for whom this is a typical week, I am reminded of how lucky I am to not have the expectation of this kind of schedule at St. ECWIW's -- not to mention how important it is to set up healthy boundaries early in my ministry as Clergy! I put this down also as a reminder to myself that taking a full course load and TA'ing a class while trying to work full time isn't a good idea. Yes, I'm sure we could have all told me that before I did it, but I'm pretty sure I still wouldn't have listened ;o)

Fuego left for her Mom's on Sunday night, so I've been on my own this week... this might be a clue that left to my own devices, I'd probably just work (yay Fuego!).

Oh ya... forgot to mention that I renewed my certification in Infant, Child, and Adult CPR, First Aid, and AED on Saturday from 9-6, which is why I didn't get finished with curriculum until 3:30am (I get up at 6:30 for church).

Okay... so here's part of where it becomes purely my fault that I didn't get any sleep...

Bro-head came to visit Sunday night, so after dropping Fuego off in LocalAirport at 10:55 pm, I went home and did some homework, then went to the store and bought some good beer (mmm... beer). Bro-head got to D-town at about 12am and we proceeded to drink beer and good rum (Pyrat... pronounced Pirate -- y'arr), chatted, watched a movie ("The One," with Jet Li), and didn't get to bed until 4am. Since I had only gotten three hours the previous night, and had been up since 6:30, I was pretty exhausted when we finally went to bed... but what a fun time!

The Dyson "Animal" worked its magic on the carpets and Bro-head was fairly allergy free (he only had to take antihistamines twice while he was there. I got up at 10 on Monday and made us blueberry pancakes (I had worked too many hours over the weekend, so I went in late to work). I went in at about noon for a lunch meeting, answered email, had staff meeting, wrote down a to do list so I could let go of my anxiety about forgetting stuff, and headed out to watch a late matinee showing of Fearless at 4pm (also with Jet Li... had to get in my "guy" movies while Fuego was gone) -- this was a really awesome movie! The tone was similar to that of Crouching Tiger (with excellent plot mixed in with great martial arts scenes), except that Fearless is based on a true story... they really did an amazing job of it, I highly recommend it!!

We had a great time talking again that evening and then watched "Brokeback Mountain" later that night. We paused the film a lot to discussion some of the challenging scenes, and ended up getting to bed at about 3am. I got up at 9, had some Captain Crunch, and headed in for a long day's work of getting my to do list done! Bro-head locked up when he left and took out Ginger for me since I didn't have time before I left. We really had a great visit!!

Whew... okay, we're up to Tuesday afternoon...

I brought my lunch so I could work straight through the day... did more email, set up volunteers for Church school and youth group while I was gone, finished some details for the upcoming DL Run, got most of my To Do list finished, and bailed at 5:30 to go home and get as much homework done as possible before Guinevere came to visit that night.

You might think that as an introvert, I would have just enjoyed some iTime with Fuego gone, but I rather consider time with Fuego as at least as good as iTime, if not better, so really I just missed her and rather welcomed the distraction of guests.

I managed to get two classes worth of homework done, then had dinner with Guinevere and hit they hay at about 1:30. Guinevere bailed at 6 so she could get to work -- she knocked on my door to say good bye, but otherwise let me sleep (yay... thanks!). I got up at 9, took Ginger out and ran to work for a 9:30 meeting with a new youth volunteer who is awesome (yay!!).

I left at 11:30 for a lunch meeting and to get the curriculum done for Sunday, having completed my to do list and trying to ensure nothing would fall through the cracks while I'm gone (how quickly we forget that things still got done before we came to our current position ;o).

When I got home from my meeting at about 4pm I brewed a pot of "decaf" (which wasn't) and got straight to work on the curriculum, which generally takes at least eight hours of work even with Fuego's expertise in song selection and her help in gathering images... which would have put me at midnight...

So when I hit about 4am, I resigned myself to only getting a few hours of sleep before I had to leave for class this morning. When I finished the resource pieces and started setting the timing of the meditation at 5, I resigned myself to not trying to do my other homework before I went to bed. When I finished the questions, burned the CDs and DVD, and went to print the resources out at 6, I resigned myself to only getting an hour and a half of sleep. When I finished grading papers to return to students today (in the class I'm TAing) it was 8am... I resigned myself to just burning the curriculum onto a CD and dropping it off at St. ECWIW's with instructions for how to do it. Ginger hadn't gone out yet, so I woke her up and took her outside (she didn't seem particularly bothered), I went to bed at 8:30 intending on an hour and a half of sleep, and resigned myself to being late for class if there was traffic.

Fuego called. We chatted. I had gotten a half hour of sleep. I went back to sleep for another half hour before the alarm went off. I got up, turned the alarm off, peed, and got back in bed.

...

Perhaps the warning sirens have just gone off for you.

...

I woke up at 11. Class had just started without me.

So I got up, fed Ginger, took the curriculum to work, and resigned myself to missing the first half of class -- thankfully it's a three hour long class :o)

I did manage to get here at break, turned in my homework, and sought forgiveness for my tardiness.

Oh... I did stop at Noah's for a bagel and got a REAL double Americano -- which might explain why I'm feeling punchy, wide awake, and kind of buzzed as I sit blogging in my Ethics class (the one I'm TA'ing) instead of paying closer attention to my favorite professor's lecture.

I will be rushing home to meet Some-of-the-time-girlfriend for dinner tonight after class (he's house-sitting for us while we're gone!), and then he's taking me to the airport tonight (Thanks SOTTiG!).

Since I generally can't sleep on airplanes, I don't anticipate getting much sleep again tonight, but at least I have a couple hundred pages to read and a paper to write that's due by Friday night to keep me busy...

Yay, vacation. ;o)