O. M. G.

Classes haven't even started yet. And I am EX-HAUST-ED.

If I escape this semester without being meetinged to death, it will be an act of a higher power. It looks like I'll be spending roughly six hours a week in the classroom, and 30 hours a week in meetings. And I'll be in rehearsals from now until November 29th. And somewhere in there I have to prep for classes--oh, and defend. Let's not forget that. And let's not forget the yeoman's work necessary for that prep.

I nearly burst into tears at a meeting today--one that I had scheduled as "Interim Division Head" of my area....there's just way too much on my plate. But my new colleague was awesome, and immediately offered to take some of the load. She totally, completely rocks.

I don't think it would have been nearly so overwhelming if I hadn't been CORNERED in the restroom after a college-wide meeting by a development person who wanted me to speak to the Dean's Advisory Committee--in October. For the record: October is going to be HARD. Super Super Hard. I tried to get her to wait until the spring, but there was no way.

Now, I've always been pretty attached to a more pagan sense of the calendar...October has always been a kind of "completion" month for me, with November marking the transition into something new. But this year seems to be marking that even more so.

And really, I'm too tired and too wrought at the moment to go into it further. Perhaps a good night's sleep, and the miraculous appearance of that last syllabus, will cure what ails me.