"You have to pace yourself," my classmate said a couple of weeks ago.

Actually, I had been only vaguely aware of the existance of that classmate until that point. But I was answering phones at the English Department when she stopped by to check on the office hours of a couple of professors, and we ended up schmoozing for the better part of an hour, during which time she made the above observation.

I don't really know how to. I run on nervous energy -- I don't mean that I thrive on it; I mean that it's my normal state. Actually, I generally have two modes of operation: either I'm working on something full speed ahead, or I'm not working on it at all. Not only don't I know how to find a middle ground between the two, the entire concept sounds alien to me.

Our conversation got interrupted every couple of minutes when the phone rang, at which point, I spun around and grabbed the receiver on the first ring, as is my usual practice. Apparently, this isn't quite normal; I oughta be taking my time. The secretary at the front desk keeps remarking that I answer the phone before she even hears it ring. But this is what I'm getting paid for, after all, not talking with classmates or doing my homework. What's accomplished by wasting the caller's time? I can't really see how the phrase "pace yourself" has any relevance here...

Anyway, this is how I tend to work; either I'm really on something, or I'm off. And given the really long list of things I've had to deal with lately, it's been hard to be on anything for a productive length of time. I've been sort of bouncing from crisis to crisis, at least until Passover and Spring Break simultaneously got underway last week, providing the eye of the storm. Just now I've been resting, and trying not to think about the large stack of stuff due as soon as vacation ends. Which is probably a bad move.

"You have to pace yourself," my classmate said a couple of weeks ago. She might have a point.

To get Elian,
They sent in the cavalry.
About bloody time!

I should, however, mention that one of said readers has his own survey up, albeit in a different form. At any rate, it's worth checking out.

We had our first geology field trip. It snowed.

I met Terry Pratchett at a book signing. He's really nice, and sweet, and adorable. If you haven't yet tried reading any of his books, do so.

Sarah Vowell was supposed to be on Letterman, but Bill Cosby went on too long, and she was bumped. But! She'll be doing a book signing in my area on my birthday -- May 10th -- so I've decided that I'm giving myself a present and going to it.

I found out about this through McSweeney's, incidentally, and if you missed their April Fool's prank, I'm afraid you missed out. It was beautiful, utterly beautiful.

I got a new watch. Having learned my lesson from last time -- the five dollar watch that quickly disintegrated -- this time I got the sort of watch I'd really wanted last year, but couldn't find at the time. That is to say, a 98-cent watch. So far, it's been working wonderfully, except that it gains a minute every couple of days. I can live with that.

I've applied for speech therapy at the speech clinic on campus. I'll be taking an evaluation test on May 22nd, which is going to cost $150. Therapy itself is going to cost a small fortune... fortunately, they do have a scholarship program. I just hope that I get one, and that it covers most of the costs.

Anyway, I gotta go to sleep. And Part 2 of Passover starts tomorrow night, keeping me offline for another couple of days, after which I get sucked back into the vortex again, so this might be awhile.

Then again, I've already missed out on two whole weeks of pre-birthday hype since the start of the season a month before, so maybe I'll get back into the swing of things after all. It'd be nice.

G'night, all.