A little bit late, a little bit of chocolate cake.

I had a short but substantial list of things to accomplish today, most of which I was not able to cross off. I blame it on the fact that I did not give myself the fifteen minute head start I planned. Instead, when my alarm/phone went off at 6:45--a.m.--I slept for thirteen more minutes, arising at 6:58. A.M., the people.

(let me pause to note: I know some of you are "morning people." So just try to empathize. Use your negative capability.)

This just meant that I was a few minutes late for everything, it seemed. And the time I thought I'd be able to steal--a minute here, a minute there--added up to nothing worth noting. I did not grade the one thing. I did not grade that other thing.

I did, however, move my thoughts in the direction of the list. I added notes. I got near to those tasks. I sized up their dimensions. My thinking about them now has more of a sense of mass. It was naive of me ever to have thought that a fifteen minute head start would make one bit of difference. It's probably good that I got that extra thirteen minutes of sleep--who knows what state I'd be in now, with such a monumental list full of epic tasks, yet undone?

There was birthday cake in the department office. I felt it was a small consolation for the scope of the work which still lay ahead of me.

All of these tasks--I'm planning to execute them from seven a.m. until one p.m. tomorrow. Grade this, grade that. Actually make the little video I plotted out. Prepare for class. It'll be a cinch. Piece of cake. I plan to get up just a little early, to get a jump on the day.