Suffering from Severe Flakiness

I have no idea what has gotten into me lately, but I have been so unbelievably flaky these past few months that I am driving myself crazy! Ever since I returned from Europe, I have been forgetting things, losing things, neglecting things ... you name it. Thankfully, none of this has been related to work or anything else really important. It's just been affecting the little things. For example, in the past three months I have lost a ton of stuff -- my watch (a sentimental birthday gift from my mother), my favorite pair of earrings (a gift from Eddie), my sunglasses (for the umpteenth time), my web cam (which I eventually found right under my nose) ... and the list goes on. Just now I spent ten minutes turning my office upside down looking for my post-it flags. They were right under my nose -- in fact, sitting right next to my Diet Coke! Good grief! I really hope this is just a phase.

The Little Things Do Matter

This is the semester for finishing up things. I will very happily be wrapping up two edited projects (and have vowed not to take on another one for a very, very, very long time). I am also trying to get several manuscripts out the door. I have papers that are anywhere from 40-80% completed that just need to be finished and submitted. The tenure clock is ticking, after all.

I have a very specific goal to finish up one of these manuscripts this week. It's very close to being done. So today is a full blown writing day. Nothing but this one manuscript on the agenda. No meetings. No class prep. No distractions. Or so I thought ...

A while ago I wrote about the importance of my writing totems. There are certain things that just make it easier for me to write and also let me really enjoy writing. One of the keys is the pen. The writing pen must be a medium, black, gel, rollerball with a rubber grip. After using up two pens this morning, I pulled out a brand new package of pens. They look like the right pens, but alas ... they are ultra fine. Ugh! They don't write in the same smooth way as my medium pens; instead they are hard and scratchy. I have still managed to write a lot today -- and have more to do yet -- but I feel so off kilter by something so seemingly trivial.