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Wednesday, November 24, 2004
still alive, but barely
My hands are still attached, although they're also still quite sore. I finished that insane job -- which basically involved me being glued to the keyboard from 3:30 on Friday afternoon until 4:30 Monday morning, minus about eight hours for sleeping and three hours for church on Sunday morning (not because i am especially holy or legalistic, but because I had nursery duty and had weaseled out of that toooo many times). It also involved the following:
- A total role reversal in our marriage. I was the one who had to work no matter what, to the detriment of my sleep schedule, and T was the one who had to deal with the kids and the meals and all that. Except he didn't have to do laundry or dishes. Which is related to the following:
- a dismaying mess to deal with when I emerged from proofreading early Monday afternoon.
- a lingering tendency to attempt to use the keyboard shortcuts that go along with my transcribing program
- a dream wherein my husband was talking to me and I couldn't type fast enough to keep up, and my hands were actually going CTRL-ALT-U in my sleep, to try to get him to pause. (see above re: shortcuts)
- Christmas shopping money, yay!
- un-be-LIEV-able hand soreness. They're still a little sore, especially between my pinky/ring finger knuckles on my left hand. Which has to do with my lazy shifting habits, i.e., I only use the left shift/ctrl/alt trio. Ever.
- a state of exhaustion so profound that I think it was very like being extremely drunk. This hit at about 3:30 Monday morning. I couldn't walk straight. I couldn't type straight. My words were slurred, my vision was blurred. I did not, however, call any ex-boyfriends, nor did I get sick or think things were inordinately funny.
- three whole days that went by without me reading a book AT ALL. I think this is some sort of record. In a bad way. I meant to bring one to church to read in the nursery, but I forgot.
- a lingering aversion to the computer, which explains why I am only just now starting to catch up on my journal reading, etc.
- a whole new understanding for:
- businessmen
- cell phone networks
- digital imaging
- nerdiness
- A conviction that if I am ever asked to do this again (which is a distinct possibility), I will insist (or, knowing me, tentatively suggest) that I be given the material, say, a little further ahead of the deadline. Because sleep is nice.
After all that, I swore up and down that Monday night would see me asleep before midnight (which is, these days, quite an early bedtime for me). I was in bed at 12:01, ready to collapse into oblivion, when I remembered (and this is the story of my life, this happens all the time) that T needed rolls made for his Thanksgiving luncheon on Tuesday. He needed specific sort of rolls that he'd been promising the guys for weeks. And I had been given plenty of advance warning, and I should have made them Monday afternoon. Instead I was up till 2:30, and I could have cried, except I spent the rising and baking times catching up on my reading. (The Other Side Of The Story, by Marian Keyes. I really liked it; I think it might be her best one yet. It's not as riotously funny as her previous books, but it did for the publishing/agenting/authoring industry what Rachel's Holiday did for addiction -- that is to say, let me into a world I'd had no real clue about before. I recommend it.)
Last night, however, I was asleep at 11:20. Which was two hours later than I had meant to be asleep, but I was finishing my book, just because I could.
And now I have to get back into regular life. The laundry is backed up, like always; I have to make two or three pies for Thanksgiving at my in-laws' tomorrow; I think I am actually going to brave the early-morning post-Thanksgiving sale at the fabric store, to get materials to make C a dress for Christmas. Which basically means that I have gone around the bend once and for all.
