I need a break. I am right now most of the way through an 11-day work week, with each day starting at 5 in the morning. My last day off was Tuesday (of last week), and Saturday I had to work in both the morning and the evening. The end result is a creeping level of burnout that leaves me no energy to tackle the increasingly pressing projects that surround me at home. Projects whose deadlines are rapidly approaching. And even when I do finally get a day off, I’ll be traveling out of town. My next chance for real downtime isn’t until Monday, and even then most of the morning will be taken up by getting home. Then it’s back to the grind before the next weekend, when I will be out of town again at an SCA event.

Needless to say, I’m feeling a bit stressed.

I have been scheduled 11 days in a row before, but last time I was able to talk to my manager and get a day off somewhere in the middle. This time, I kinda did it to myself. Family and SCA commitments converged around late summer this year, but I forgot to account for the fact that the weekend before all that would be mandatory for work. And that I’m still low enough on the totem pole (not the bottom, but not by much) that I’m going to get the crap shifts.

It doesn’t help that I’ve also reached my Messiness tolerance, but have no gumption left to do anything about it. By the time I get home, write, and finally get around to relaxing, it’s practically time for dinner. Other projects are also piling up: minor things, that wouldn’t take much time to do, but at this point appear as just ONE MORE THING to handle. And that’s to say nothing about having to rob Peter to pay Paul when it comes to bills. Man, I’m sure glad I got that higher degree right about now!

Sure, one could say that it’s just part of “being an adult,” but platitudes fall painfully short, and do nothing to fix the situation. That’s not to say I won’t get through this; I will, somehow, as I always do. And I’m sure I’ll have fun on my trips, but right now it’s time to vent.

I’m sure I had something else to say, but it’s gone now.