Slippage

It's a Sunday night, 9:09 pm, and I've gotten a grand total of zero work done today. That's zero school related work done. I've been doing other sorts of work (i.e. errand running) all weekend long, and feel as though my time is slip-sliding away, true to the great Paul Simon song.

My (ex)roommate wrote one of her theses on slippage, and now it seems to be invading my life as well. True, hers was more concentrated on signs and signifiers, whereas mine exists on a temporal level. See: Wednesday afternoon.

I gave a colleague a ride home, the van slowly blundering over speed bumps in DPlace, thinking to myself "Wow, self, hump day is over! You only have two more days of school left this week." Then, after a 45 minute drive that should have taken 10-15, spending a *fortune* at kinkos because we have no copy machine at Central, grocery shopping, prescription filling, and a trip to Pier One to redeem a gift certificate, I felt so bitter that my evening had been robbed from me by Biscayne Boulevard traffic and necessary errands that the prospect of rising at 5:30 the next morning for school absolutely depressed me. I probably watched an episode of Alias to make myself feel better.

Scratch that, I watched TWO, because I printed out the other 120 pages worth of "A Scandal in Bohemia" on my own printer instead of being cowed by the price-gauging at Kinkos-FedEx. FedEx is officially on my shit list after the fiasco with my computer parts. I refuse to write about it, because I may become irate if I think about it too much.

In any case, what shocked me was the fact that mere hours before, the amalgam of time ThursdayFriday seemed easily surmountable; by the time I went to bed, it seemed like an eternity. On a good day, time passes in a regulated, normal fashion; on a bad day (which are maybe 4 out of 5), what should be an hour slides into 3, and what feels like 45 minutes shrinks into 5.

Then, we are presented with the concept of Neutral Time. This is when worries, schedules, and priorities are suspended. We shall henceforth classify Thursday as Neutral Time. 8 TFA-ers gathered in apt. 1 for a 90 minute, commercial free television broadcast of the history-making 2004 presidential debate at UM. There was much yelling, much laughter and scoffing (vociferous, he said vociferous; Poland?; WMD's, what that what we were looking for?), and even a bit of praise for the presidential-looking smirk of John Kerry. I felt excited about politics for the first time in ages.

We slip over to Neutral Time #2, see: Saturday.
Nearly an hour searching for the nebulous Ocean Bank to no avail, followed en seguida by my birthday pedicure (mmmm); soaking up rays on the beach; phone bank calling for the Florida Democratic Party..."there's a lot at stake this election year, and the Florida Democratic Party is working hard to make sure your vote counts"; DSW for very non-teacher shoes; shelving at Target; and finally a foray into the monstrosity of upper-class consumer culture known as Aventura Mall. There are 2 Gap's, two Abercrombies, and a caviar stand. Apple Computers got a little more of my paycheck, and then all of a sudden Saturdy was over.

All day I kept asking people what time it was, or checking my cell phone. Every time I was at least 2 hours off. The boy and I also slipped by each other, missing phone messages by 30 seconds or so, until 1:00 am when our conversation consisted mainly of me slipping slowly out of consciousness.

Sunday slid away while I painted and hung shelves, cleaned my entire room, swept the dust and litter from the floor, and attempted to sweep the copwebs from my brain. I'm not feeling really psyched about school lately, and I can think of about 80 reasons why, but I dont' really want to get into it.

What really gets to me is the feeling of tiredness that I can't seem to get rid of. This is compounded when I am contantly disrespected in my classroom, have no supplies or technical support, and don't really know how to solve any of these problems. I thought it would go away a little bit once I started reading things that I actually cared about, but that's pretty hard in my reading classes, and I haven't had the time nor the desire to really get into the Sherlock Holmes story.

I need to get with it, and I need to to it quickly.

Meanwhile, the cat sleeps on in a blissful oblivion, caring only that I want to cut his claws and wondering when he gets to eat next. I count the hours until I drive to Ft. Lauderdale to pick up the boy for fall break, and have to remember that I'm planning a personal day for next Monday. [guilty grin]. Lke I said, I guess it's time to get back to work. C'mon Thea, just a few more days.