And it's Friday

I got the ribbing done for the back of the new Central Park Hoodie last night. (Wow, it takes a lot of explaining as to what that was). I hope to at least do the set-up rows for the stockinette and cabled part this weekend, as I give another exam Monday and I want to use it as invigilating knitting again.

However, this weekend I need to:
1. Write yet another exam (this is for Thursday. Yes, exams come in waves, but there are only so many ways you can fit four exams into a semester so I usually get slammed with a week or two of lots of testing, and then a few slack weeks).

2. Grade the project proposals for ecology which I am collecting today. At least this semester it's a smaller class - 14 (or 15, I can't tell if someone dropped or not, there are only 14 people regularly there) rather than 26 or 27, so that will take a little less time.

3. Work on the blasted paper sometime. I've been picking at it but I'm now to the point where I really have to dig in and read the comments again and try to figure out what I can discard as unreasonable and what I must incorporate into the rewrite. I have a minimal goal of having this done and submitted by Spring Break, because then I won't have to think about it again for a while. (And if I'm lucky, the only thinking I'll have to do about it in the future are to make a few revisions related to a conditional acceptance)

4. Bake a cake for Monday night's CWF. I found a recipe for a lemon-buttermilk sheet cake in my new Cook's Country cookbook that I want to try.

5. Sometime, clean house - it really needs it, and also, the piano tuner is coming out next Friday to tune the piano. (Note to self: Remove all Pony figurines from piano before he gets there. Having those around might take a little explaining to someone who's not a Brony)

So, yeah, not a lot of time for relaxation. Also, next week I have meetings Monday and Wednesday nights, and on top of piano lesson on Tuesday, I have a check up with my doctor. I'm trying not to be nervous - my blood pressure has been good, I don't THINK I've gained any weight (even though I've been less restrictive in my eating, at least in terms of calories, of late). The most recent time I needed her to call in a refill for my meds she did a three-month rather than one-month refill, so I assume that means she figures the medication is working well and will just have me continue it.

I can tell I'm a little overwhelmed because I got very hopeful when they were talking about "maybe snow" Wednesday (even though the high is going to be in the low 50s). I would really love a snow day, or better yet, an unexpected "you can't come to campus" day (like, the power here being out or something). (With "snow days," unless it's really bad, I sometimes come in to work.)

Also, when my parents called the other night, they asked what I wanted for my birthday. I could not think of a single material item that I really strongly desired. (I suppose in a way I should be happy about that). I have "enough" yarn, I can't think of any books I'm really dying to have right now (though I might suggest one or two of the slightly more expensive titles off of my Amazon wishlist). What I REALLY want is either:

a. More free time to work on my various projects

or

b. More freedom from the concerns that dog me - the little personal ones like feeling like I have to contemplate every dang molecule of sodium that enters my mouth and looking upon my daily blood pressure reading as evidence of how I have lived "well" or "badly" on that given day (People ask me why I don't keep a bathroom scale in the house. Because I obsess over numbers like that, that's why). And the bigger concerns about "what is going to happen to higher education in the US? Are the pundits really right, are we all just a waste of money, and will brick-and-mortar universities be pretty much gone in 10 years?" I don't know that I could happily make a living being an online-class "content provider" though that may be my future. (I really don't know what else I could do. One thing I enjoy and have been good at in the past is textbook evaluation and proofreading, but there's not enough work to support myself on that, and I suspect proofreading is the buggy-whip manufacturing of publishing.) Do you know how sad it is to contemplate that everything you are good at might be superannuated? It makes you feel as if you have little value as a person.

But the thing is, neither of those things can be bought. So I guess I'll ask for a book that I won't have time to read, or some kitchen gadget that I won't use as often as I might because most dinners for me consist of boiling up a couple handfuls of green beans, and making a salad, and reheating whatever other vegetable is in the fridge.