I'm still alive (or, "Behold the Return of Ms. Cup-is-Half-Full")

altho I'm not sure I'll be able to say the same in 9 hours. French Club crêpe party tonight for which I made a triple batch of batter last night. I'd love just to drop off the batter and go home but then I wouldn't be able to guard my beloved crêpe pan which has also been called into service. You KNOW I'm not letting that thing out of my sight!

How scary is it when the first day back from a measly TWO DAY break, you're completely shell-shocked?! I told my brother in an email this morning that things were going better, and I guess I still think they are, but today is killing me. It feels like I've been away for eons. So, YAY to the idea of vacation, but simultaneous BOO and YIKES to how much it messed up my long-sought and hard-won, slight but there nonetheless, equilibrium and momentum. Of course between French Club and departmental stuff there are about 4 major things happening in the next week in addition to my re-editing numerous Paris program docs and starting to revise the First Year syllabi for spring. Gah! One of the events is a required thing Saturday most of the day which would be jarring enough even if it weren't for the fact that a large percentage of the emails we've received about it have been more in the command category (from colleagues, mind you, not even the Chair) than in the respectful request category. Add to that my glee at being able neither to hike nor to visit anyone (had been aiming to see Pree & Brad in Charleston but Sat. will run too late now).

And I've been buried in school email now for 75 minutes. Must escape email... must... escape... email... must escape... This did NOT happen to such a drastic extent at Aub*rn - honestly. I don't know what I'm going to do to segment things better during my work time. Spring will be even worse in this regard since I'll probably have 4 times more Paris program emails flying back and forth... (Always the bright side!)

I better go finish lesson plans before this stage of the caffeine moves on to the even more morose stage. Which is another pisser: I was way down on caffeine before break and was getting way more rest on school nights, but yesterday I started obsessing about how much I didn't want to come back to school today and so I was up with nervous energy until about 4.

Down the toilet...