Up to Thanksgiving, I had my shit together. I was on top of Christmas shopping. I got all my lectures written. I was successfully combatting the holiday bulge. I was getting some writing done. Somehow, in the two weeks since, my life has spiralled out of control. I trace it back to the fact that I essentially LOST a week doing stuff for other people that was not compatible with getting ANYTHING on my list of stuff done.
Now it’s less than two weeks before Christmas, I’m behind on getting Christmas gifts made. My house is a disaster (okay, I admit, this happens on a regular basis). It’s been a struggle to even find time to write 250 words a day for the Novel Push Initiative I’ve signed up for. I haven’t gotten anything else done on my class. I’ve gained 3.5 pounds in my travels the last 9 days (evidently my uncle has never HEARD of a vegetable). And at this point I am so stressed out about everything that needs doing, I don’t see any serious writing going on until … January.
There is woodworking to be done, a mailbox to be handpainted, name plaques to be cut and painted, mass quantities of bread to be baked, truffles to be made (and not actually eaten on my part), 2 hours of daily exercise needed to help carve off said 3.5 pounds of crappy eating by Christmas, gifts to be wrapped, test questions to write, house to clean, Christmas dinner to plan, a syllabus to write, course calendar to write, practice tests and real tests to write, a wreath to redo, the usual laundry and housekeeping to be done, and 25o words to write a day. Oh, and you know, my actual job.
Christmas used to be FUN. Now it’s just this big, stressful thing that I no longer have time to get ready for. I’m sure that doens’t have ANYTHING to do with the fact that I’m working what is tantamount to four jobs. Regular job, 2 teaching posts, and let’s be honest, writing is a job. House keeping is a job. Okay so maybe that’s 5 jobs. Too many! I need a vacation.
2 thoughts on “Holiday Frazzled”
Relax a minute and think about what you can do to alleviate the stress level. The homemade goods? Pfft. Hickory-Farms the family this year. There are places/ways to squeeze writing in, like carry a notebook with you to jot down ideas. Schedule stuff like you would for your class.
Here’s to hoping that your XMas does come out okay, and writing will resume in the New Year. Enjoy.
Well, see I make gifts because it’s considerably cheaper than buying them, not because I have any aspirations to be Martha Stuart. For the cost of some yeast and a 10 pound bag of flour, I can gift 15 people with homemade artisan bread and not look like the cheapskate on a budget that I am.