Limping to the finish line

[Warning: Sad and fretful rant ahead.]

Rushing to finish up the semester, writing and administering all exams pretty much back-to-back, schlepping from personal appointment to personal appointment in between classes and exams all last week, grading one set of exams, grading one set of upper-level major semester projects, grading one set of research papers and then driving to Shore Town for My Two Dads' annual holiday bash does not a rested and happy Medusa make.

I still have to grade one set of finals and tabulate final grades, as well as doing Christmas shopping and sending cards and the million little things necessary to be ready to board a plane early Wednesday morning for a two-week trip to the Deep Red. It is perhaps indicative of the level of mental, emotional, and physical exhaustion I am feeling that the Deep Red sounds like heaven right now and that I wish I could stay for more the two weeks.

The funny thing is that I was feeling fine before this weekend's social event--well, not fine, exhausted and frantic but also productive and more than able to get it all done and also somehow in the holiday spirit. At the party, I ate and drank too much, leaving me wasting all day yesterday feeling sick and depressed. I also felt that faking-it thing at the party--pretending to be feeling happy and social, which also leaves me discombobulated and depressed the next day.

Ugh. No time now to wallow in it. Will throw myself into work and preparations. Must remember to discuss this all with New Shrink when I return and, in the meantime, try to catch my second holiday-spirit wind.