Edited to de-whine.

I had a case of Mystery Hiccoughs today. Managed to kill them by drinking about a quart of water out of the fountain, but fountain-water ("bubbler" water for those of you North of the Illinois/Wisconsin border) is not an efficient way to kill hiccoughs.

(And yes, I prefer the affected-looking, Britishy spelling).

I get Mystery Hiccoughs a lot. They're not brought on by anything I ate, or anything I drank...most often it's when I twist a funny way, or lift something in not quite the most ergonomic way. And then there they are.

It has just been kind of a challenging week...part of it is that it's hot again. After cooling down, the cool weather got yanked away from us and we're back into the 90s.

And I'm crazy-busy again. Several things I did not expect to have to do, I suddenly have to do.

So tonight, instead of relaxing (which is what I honestly, truly, really want to do), I'm writing an exam. In the hopes that maybe I can grab a little time this weekend or in the coming week to relax. (What is it they say? "Work expands to fill the time allotted"?)

I really hoped to have the SitCom Chic done by the start of next week - I'm almost up to the neckline decreases, and then all that remains is the front band and the neckband, and a tiny bit of seaming (I prefer sweaters with minimal seaming).

But maybe not. I have field research pencilled in for tomorrow but I suspect that the student's going to cancel again. Which I wouldn't be too upset about.

I did get my faculty development plan (or rather, my post-tenure review for the past year) done today. It's actually better to do it really fast than to stew over it for weeks (my department chair forgot that they had changed the due date for this year and didn't tell us...so they are due Tuesday). By doing it fast, I avoided a lot of the agonizing over thinking about research projects I DIDN'T do, or opportunities I DIDN'T take.

Though frankly, in the grand scheme of things? I work pretty dang hard. Harder now, I think, than I did before tenure.

The fact that GenBio is essentially a new prep this year because we have a new textbook and a new set of "you must teach them these" objectives - where I am probably stressing more over getting every iota of information on those sheets in than I should - doesn't help with the busy-ness.

And I'm kind of having flashbacks to my first semester here - when I had three new preps (how did I survive? How did I avoid going screaming nuts?). I have the same kind of bone-weariness and dread of running out of material. Though not quite to the same degree, I guess.

I keep telling myself this is a time-limited thing: next semester it will be easier because GenBio will no longer be "new prep" status. But it's still hard not to feel kind of worn thin and like my creativity and good cheer have been lacking of late.