Holiday: Part One

I have decided that an account of my holiday should be in two parts, since I seem to be flipping back-and-forth between two distinct personalities and lifestyles.

Academic Medusa made few plans for Thanksgiving--decided not to travel, politely turned down in-town invitations, organized work into doable portions, and settled in for a long weekend of rest, solitude, re-grouping. Wednesday through Friday went pretty well. I did not get as much work done as I had planned, but I read, wrote, graded, watched movies, slept, napped and ate yummy food.

Working felt good. When I am this behind and this anxious, I need to know that I have hours and hours of uninterrupted time ahead of me. I made a significant dent in pile of reading and grading. The house was empty (Fuckwits were making their yuppie rounds, elsewhere) and the neighborhood was quiet. I even managed to avoid the across-the-street neighbor who has suddenly decided to be my best friend (more on this later. . .it's weird, to say the least). The week before last (when I was racing between classes and meetings and drinks/debauchery with Demetrius and Feste) left me out-of-touch with myself. The solitude was glorious. I even started mapping out my plans for December break and for next semester. First time in a long time that I felt things were not entirely hopeless (i.e. that I could have some kind of a peaceful, sane existence in the foreseeable future). Managed to quell my fears that I am a bad, bad professor.

Although I did not cook much, I managed to eat more than one meal a day. I haven't reported much on this, but my eating habits have been abysmally poor (a standard, ongoing problem when I am stressed). I have been losing weight--eight pounds since August, a lot for someone with a little frame. It also finally dawned on me that my inability to concentrate might be caused or at the very least exacerbated by a simple lack of calories. I also slept like an angel--nine to ten hours a night, powernaps here and there. The more I ate and slept, the more I was able to focus. I was more sleep-deprived than I had imagined. No food + no sleep = low-energy professor. Duh.

Watched many movies (think I was also film-deprived)--stupid movies, serious movies, and those somewhere in-between. Went to an early show (I <3 Huckabees) with Demetrius on Saturday. This was the tame part of the evening. Peaceful holiday devolved from here. Will save that story for Part Two (aka Less Boring Holiday Report, in which Dr. Medusa does not provide long-winded account of sleeping, eating, and working habits).