After nearly three weeks of continuous paper grading, I finally had two days clear. Luckily, a delivery of books from Amazon came to suck up the time.
My son asked for some books for his birthday--an Ursula K. LeGuin trilogy and The Light Fantastic by Terry Pratchett. I sent the LeGuin trilogy, but received the Pratchett book later. Since I'd been thinking about reading Pratchett--his Discworld series is popular--I ordered A Hatful of Sky for me. That, unfortunately, is the second in a series of three books about a witch named Tiffany Aching. I liked it so much I ordered three other Pratchett books--The Wee Free Men, Wintersmith, and Good Omens, a book he wrote with Neil Gaiman.
I finished The Wee Free Men at 3am this morning; I began Wintersmith today. I've also managed to wash clothes, sweep the entire house, and put the French bread dough on to rise.
So, why do I feel guilty? Guilty, you ask?
As I'm reading my novels, cleaning my house, etc., in the back of my mind, I hear this little voice saying, "You need to be working on coursework. You have sections to update, schedules to amend, students to pester; the next semester begins in January--it's already October! Get to work!"
I need to kick my type A gene to the curb. I work 15 to 18 hours a day, most days; even when I teach on campus, I come home and hit the computer. My sense of duty/obligation needs to leave me alone for a while so I can enjoy a good book or two or three. I also have two manuscripts written by my friends that I've been reading, and I have my own writing to ponder. It's not as if I goof off that often, if one could call "reading" "goofing off." It's not (she said, defensively). And NaNoWriMo begins Nov. 1, so I'll have that added, self-imposed pressure.
I'm trying to convince my workaholic self that I need time off...working all day every day gets tiring. And I find that I make more mistakes when I don't take time to recharge. When I'm in work mode all the time, I can' slow down or stop. I think that's wrong.
I need to relax. I'm working on it.