Timing

I wanted to start by saying that timing is everything, and in some ways that's true, but I'm uncomfortable with such a sweeping claim. Timing, though, is certainly important.

Take this summer, for example. SO much to do. But of course something had to go wrong. Perhaps not surprisingly, that something is my back. I'm hoping it's just been aggravated by the painting, packing, cleaning, and moving. And that sure seems plausible. In trying to get all of that done, I pretty much threw all of the back rules out the window. Lots of bending at the waist, carrying things that are too heavy, etc. If anybody out there has had a microdiscectomy, you know that it's prone to reinjury. Not cool. So far, though, it's the other side that's bothering me. It's deeply scary because if it's the same disc, just bulging on the other side, I think we'll be talking about removing the disc completely and fuzing two vertebrae together. Much more pain and a longer recovery time. Not good. And to have that during my second year of a tenure-track job, well, that would definitely be bad timing.

As it is, I've been on muscle relaxers and anti-inflammatories for the last few days as well as bed rest. The irritated part of me says this is bad timing. I'm no longer allowed to clean or unpack. While this sounds absolutely lovely in some ways ("I'd LOVE to scrub the bathroom floor, honey, but it's against my doctor's orders"), it's a pain in others. Tim is coming to visit in 5 days and we'd like to have the place unpacked by then. It's harder when I can't help.

And I thought maybe I'd get some work done on an article draft I'm working on, but the Rxs have been making me loopy. I seem to be adjusting a bit better today, so I might hit that article in a bit. After laying on my back for a 1/2 hour. So in other ways, the timing is crap. Better than during the semester, I suppose.

Speaking of timing, there's not world enough and time for all of the things I need to get done. I did, so far, finish that Buffy article and submit it to Slayage. Not a lot of tenure power there, but if it gets published, at least it's something. And I have 23 pages of a kind of draft of the article I'm trying to write about argument textbooks. It's mostly chunks of text with nothing cohesive yet. I need to get that draft done and polished soon.

I also need to plan my classes for next term. I've started a bit, but have much more work to do there.

We need to unpack and clean and get ready for Tim's visit. He's family, so it doesn't need to be spotless, but we'd like it to be.

Moving has taken much too much time this summer, and the back problems have slowed me way down, but I'm hoping that I can get back to work soon. I love my new home office and will love it even more when I figure out where I want this bookcase and can then finish unpacking. But it seems like a great room to get work done. It's not as big as my last office, but it's bright and sunny and I'm smitten with the built-ins. let's hope this room holds lots of positive energy for me. Because there's much work to do.