LONG DAYS

Every time I turn around, someone at work is throwing another initiative, another online training, another new responsibility, or an inconvenient requirement at me with no extra time nor support to accomplish it all.  In order to try and balance it all, I email team members after midnight on Saturday and spend fourteen hours on paperwork on Sunday.

I nearly break my spine carrying an overloaded backpack to and from work.  Thank goodness the backpack is an old L. L. Bean one, so it is lifetime-sturdy.  My packed backpack will outlive me, I'm sure.

The clock doesn't have enough hours to cover it all.

Today I have to attend two meetings and miss most of my planning period, sucking up even more of my limited prep time.  I decide that today is yet another day that I will stay late and get more work done here at my desk before lugging the rest of it home with me.

Alas, I am incorrect. I have forgotten about my after-school meeting.  What is the topic of this third meeting of the day? 

Another initiative, another online training, another new responsibility, another inconvenient requirement with no extra time nor support to accomplish it all.

I lug more papers from work to home tonight, nine hours after I originally left carrying a stuffed-full backpack from home to work this morning.  It doesn't matter.  Once I sit down at home, I find it difficult ... impossible ... to function beyond breathing.

This much I know:  I cannot keep this pace of fourteen-plus hours a day.