I must now qualify for plonker of the week. I had some urgent writing to do today. So I dilly-dallied around with some reading, made a cup of coffee, visited some blogs (see below), a little more reading, time for lunch, footled around with some interview material, off to the shops; forgot the dry cleaning and prescription (there really wasn't that much more to remember!), some more fiddling around with the structure of the paper, second trip to the shops to do the bits I'd forgotten, another cup of tea, now I'm blogging.
Aaarrggghhhhh
and to think they trust the youth of the nation into my hands! please don't tell my students! :-O
sigh, :-( hopeles, quite hopeless
hi caroline, found you via wes and jason...have done the same thing a number of times! in fact last week, i cleaned out my entire clothes closet after putting it off for years. my teenage daughter commented, "why today?" "just felt like it," i retorted! to which she paused, and then slyly said, "i know it's cause you *had* to write today;)
oh...the things we do to escape the weight of glory we bear!
must confess...right this moment, i am doing the very same thing;)
glad you are blogging, have read any of your comments. you are a good find and i am adding you to my blog lines and my regular read list on my blog site! shalom, susie
Posted by: susiealbertmiller | April 30, 2005 at 05:44 PM
Thank you Susie for that encouragement.
the other thing that moves me into avoidance strategies is marking. Exam time in the summer was the only time of year when ironing became positively exciting :-)
sigh, I wish there were a pill I could take to make me a conscientious writer, sigh
Posted by: Caroline | April 30, 2005 at 05:51 PM
Can really identify with writing avoidance - oops, doing it now (sermon for evensong tomorrow). I guess your blogged confession has cheered me up immensely, if only to know that it's not just me...
Posted by: hopefulamphibian | April 30, 2005 at 08:41 PM
lol
You say that like it's a bad thing!
No, really, isn't that normal? My daughter lives like that on a regular basis. I think it has to do with school. The intense structure of an academic schedule creates a backlash. when she gets out, she just falls down like a blob for a while and then diddles the whole afternoon and evening away until "bed-time", then she starts her homework. I think that her "bed-time" is actually the beginning of her school day:
She starts her homework, then she takes a really long 8-hour nap in the middle, then she goes to school for 8 hours and then she poops out.
I guess Teachers have the same impulses about it that students do. It's only fair.
Posted by: Whitewave | May 03, 2005 at 06:44 AM
But whitewave, I'm supposed to be a grown up addled (sorry - adult)! I'm supposed to be sensible, disciplined and in control. I'm supposed to be the one giving your daughter a good example, so she doesn't 'poop out'! :-)
But I do suspect that you've hit upon a growing problem for teachers/academics. There used to be an assumption that our intense interaction with students would be followed by breaks, in which time we could take a breath. That is no longer the case as most of us work pretty well year round.
I'm not saying that university teachers work harder than most, rather that we haven't learned yet how to pace ourselves (maybe it's just me) for work patterns that no longer include holiday periods where work, whilst continuing, slowed down appreciably.
Posted by: Caroline | May 03, 2005 at 03:04 PM