Give Me A Break

I'm so ready for spring break. I'm ready to dance at Roomie's wedding. I'm ready to get some good food in my hometown. I'm ready to lie by the pool in Vegas with a pina colada in hand. I'm ready for a night of parying at the Playboy Club at The Palms, complete with bottle service (which, incidentally, was my father's idea, and when he called me to say, "Would that be okay with you if we went there on Friday night? And would you ask everyone else if they want to go [everyone meaning Maddi, my sister, my brother and his friend, my cousin, and her husband]?" I was like, "Are you crazy? Who is going to say no to that?" As predicted, nobody said no.)

This next week is going to be rough. I have a big paper due in my class on Wednesday and a big presentation due in my class on Tuesday. This means I have a ton of research and reading and writing to do this weekend and next week, and yet I can't seem to stop accepting invitations or offering my help to people. Last night I attended an obligatory social event (I'm not being facetious, I really did have to go for the class I teach) and then I ended up at the bar afterwards, and one drink turned into 3 drinks and sitting at the bar until 1 a.m., which is what always happens. Today I have to go to a class that got rescheduled after it got canceled last week. Then I still have to do all my usual Friday stuff (cleaning the apartment since I didn't get to clean last week since I was out of town, grocery shopping for some staples because I'm out of everything but am still in town for another week, working out). So I doubt I'll get started on any homework until 8 or 9 tonight. Tomorrow I volunteered to help a friend and her husband move into their new apartment. I'm only going for a few hours, and it should be kind of fun since so many of us are helping out. Plus who couldn't use the good karma from helping a friend move? I'll need someone to help me move some day I'm sure. But still, that's a few hours out of my day on Saturday. Sunday a friend invited me to her movie discussion club since her husband can't go, which I'm not going to turn down because it's a chance to see a pre-release movie for free and I never get to go to movies lately and I miss them. I also have a dog play date planned for Sunday afternoon which I'm not going to cancel at this point because we've been trying to get everyone together for literally months now. On Monday I agreed to go out with some friends of my mom's. They're this really sweet older couple. My mom used to babysit their kids years ago when they were all living on the same military base in Germany, and coincidentally I have ended up in the same town that they have been living in for years. I met them when my mom was in town last September, and now they periodically take me out to lunch. I'm not sure why, actually, I guess just to make sure I'm doing okay. Like I said, it's very sweet and I get a free restaurant lunch out of the deal which, admittedly, is an incentive. So yeah, Monday is not an ideal day for a two hour lunch, but it's another one of those situations where we've been trying to find a time to get together for six weeks or so now and I don't want to cancel on them now that we've finally coordinated something. Tuesday night I may have to babysit for a friend so she can go to marriage counseling (this marriage warrants a post in and of itself; I'm amazed that men like her husband still exist in the twenty-first century). Wednesday night I'm supposed to go to dinner with my cousin and my aunt and uncle who are in town visiting her. And I applied for a summer job last week and they told me they'd be calling me this upcoming week, which hopefully means I'll have an interview I'll have to squeeze in there somewhere.
And then Friday morning I have to take the first of four plane flights I'll be making in ten days.

Ah, my life. It doesn't feel fair to complain, though. And to be honest, I don't even think I want to. How can I complain about having too many invitations, too many people I enjoy spending time with, and a career that keeps me too busy? I'm really, really lucky that my "problems" and my "stress" aren't really either one of those things at all.