I think I've been working too hard and pushing myself too much. I didn't sleep well last night - had lots of strange unpleasant dreams culminating with my dreaming that was driving along sort of at dusk (this is a common theme, for some reason) but then I had to swerve to avoid a buffalo that was crossing the road, and wound up rolling my car down an embankment. (I was wearing my seat belt in the dream. The air bags did not deploy in my dream). When the car came to rest, I thought, "Oh, crap, my new car is going to be all banged up" and then I woke up. I've also been dreaming about teaching, which is never pleasant - you feel like you haven't slept, like you haven't "gotten away" from work when you wake up.

So I've decided to give myself as much of a "mental health day" as I feel I can reasonably take in my job. I give an exam today, and I have a few hours of office hours. In the before-exam office hours, I'm going to clean my office a little (get rid of all the un-handed-out handouts: I really should be more draconian about disposing of them and telling people who miss class that it's on the online site and they need to get it there). After the exam, for my 2 office hours, I'm going to grade.

And then I'm going to go home. I'm not going to try to sort the remaining two soil samples - it's possible part of my tiredness is due to allergic overload from trying to get them all done this week. I'm not going to hang around waiting for someone to come in with a problem - I've already put out fires I should not have had to put out this week.

I don't know what I will do with the extra free time at home but I am sure I will find something.

Part of this may also be due to the fact that my parents' one remaining (21 year old) cat is not doing great - she is going to the kitty hospital today for some kind of "flushing" treatment - she is on antibiotics for an infection and the doctor is concerned it could be affecting her kidneys, so they're going to put her on an iv drip for the day and think that might help. I am probably excessively concerned about this. And anyway, intellectually, I know: the cat is 21. That is remarkably old for a cat. But still.

The cat is still eating so I suppose that's a good sign.

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And, something cheerfuller. Or at least, that I find cheerfuller. The other day, Lynn linked to a site showing the anatomy of a tribble, and a commenter brought up the, "but they don't show the baby tribble growing in there, I thought they were born pregnant!" And that triggered the memory of another site for me:

"Whoa, [tribbles] be always preggers!" (quotation from "Bones" McCoy). Yup, Star Trek in LOLspeak. (I know I linked the site before. And I know some hard-core trekkers really hate it. But, for me, it's one of the funniest things I've ever seen on the Internet. They even work in the DS9 tribute to the episode at the end.)

****

Also, my mail has not been fun lately. Lots of junk mail, lots of weird catalogs for stuff I'm not even interested in.

But then yesterday, I opened the mail box. And there was one, lone piece of mail. A small envelope, with my name and address handwritten on it. About the size and shape of an invitation. "Now who," I asked myself, "who of the people I know could be getting married or having a baby?" (I assumed it was a shower invitation or a wedding save-the-date card. I couldn't think of anyone who would be sending me a formal invitation.

Well, yes. It was a formal invitation.

An invitation from the Women's Health Center. For my annual mammogram.

This was my reaction:

My dentist sends postcards with cartoons of dancing teeth on them, so you know immediately what they are. I think that's more my speed. (I know, I know, the "invitation" is meant to be a nice gesture and all, but it seemed excessive to me.)