Woke up, fell out of bed...

I have a friend who hates the Beatles. So I hope he'll forgive me when I compare my present state of my mind to the cacophonous crescendo near the end of "A Day in the Life." A slow-mounting tsunami of deadlines and toil now threatens to flatten me with its wall of unforgiving noise. As in the song, there will be a crash to silence by month’s end. But the post-crash hum won’t cease til mid-December.

I need to remind myself that “this work is a pleasure, this work is a pleasure.” Optimism hasn't yet lost the battle to despair. But I also fear that I can’t work fast enough. Can’t focus hard enough. Can’t put off sleep enough to do all the things that I need to accomplish in the next 20 to 30 days.

Still—when I read over that last paragraph, a little voice in the back of my head whispers her defiance. “Watch me!”