I haven’t been sleeping well — every night I wake up, look at the clock, and see that it’s 3am, and know that I’m going to be in a fog all day — and tonight at midnight is the deadline for all my Genetics students to turn in their take-home exams. So I got up this morning, glanced at my inbox, and discovered that many of those industrious little rascals had turned in their exams early. That’s good, but I need to drink a lot more coffee to get my brain into action. I have to get this dealt with by Thursday, because Thursday at midnight is the deadline for my intro biology take-home exam. This scenario of deadlines catching me unwilling and unprepared is going to go on all week.
There is a light at the bottom of the pit of despond, though! The plan is for me to be a good boy and get all this paperwork done, then to take a day to recover and get rested up, and then to hop in the car and drive for 12 hours straight to finally see Mary again in Colorado! And Iliana! And Skatje & Kyle! Then we’ll spend a restful couple of days in the company of a busy 1½ year old before Mary & I hop in the car again and drive north for 12 hours. Everything will be back to normal, as it hasn’t been since she flew away at the end of February.
I do have this nagging dread in the back of my head that the instant my circumstances are restored, that’s the moment I come down with COVID-19 and die. Or worse, the moment I run to her arms I wake to gasp out my last breath on a ventilator, a morbid twist on An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge.
Man, a lack of sleep messes with your head.