It’s Sunday afternoon, the last hours of spring break. You know you’ve had a working vacation if …
… your house is so dirty it would take days of cleaning to get it set right.
… your garage door opener hasn’t been working for weeks and you haven’t done anything about it.
… your security system is on the fritz and you haven’t called them about it.
… you haven’t raked leaves, fertilized, spread mulch or compost, or even taken your over-wintering plants out of the garage (see broken garage door above) even though the weather has been heart-breakingly beautiful.
… your bathtub is clogged and fills with water up to your ankles every time you shower and you haven’t done anything about it.
… your dog really, really needs a bath.
… your eyes are strained and your back is sore from sitting in front of a computer for hours every day.
… you have a stack of papers/exams from each of your classes but you haven’t started grading.
… you have broken all of your eating rules, allowed yourself to have ice cream and sweets every night as a “reward,” and you are getting fatter every day.
… you been eating out way, way too much because it’s just too difficult to clean the kitchen.
… you can’t even remember what your book is about.
… your spring break is over and you feel more exhausted than you did when it started.
Yeah, it’s Sunday afternoon, the end of the break, I’m still not done with the fucking book and now I’m asking myself the inevitable question of whether it’s all worth it. Worth all the work? Worth the exhaustion? Worth being behind in everything else? Worth not enjoying life?
Gah.

8 comments
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March 22, 2009 at 10:33 pm
Clio Bluestocking
Yes to all of the first questions. If you ever figure out the last set of questions, please let us know!
March 23, 2009 at 1:12 am
servetus
I am so with you on this and am in basically the same situation. I wonder if I shouldn’t just have enjoyed the break, given that I wasn’t going to get any papers graded anyway!
March 23, 2009 at 1:43 am
Ink
But on the bright side, you’re closer to finishing the book, right? So yay!
March 23, 2009 at 2:33 am
Carmen
As instructors, do we ever really have a vacation when we _aren’t_ working one one thing or other?
March 23, 2009 at 4:34 am
Sisyphus
Well, I often do that over a break, don’t get any grading done _and_ haven’t got any work done on my projects, so, you’re in good company. Or something.
Maybe it’s our weird, messed-up way of doing penance and Lent and stuff?
We should just switch over to floggings and a good hair shirt.
March 23, 2009 at 1:04 pm
bsgirl
I think that my frustration about my “working vacation” is compounded by 1) what I was working on: the endless, soul-sucking book 2) the fact that I came VERY close to finishing the revisions — but DIDN’T and, because I have so much other work to do (that, of course, I’ve been neglecting) it may be weeks before I can get back to the book and 3) the fact that I know several other academics who spent their breaks on exotic beaches. Who do they think they are anyway? You can’t wear a hair shirt on a beach!
March 23, 2009 at 11:32 pm
Lurker
Honestly, I shouldn’t comment since I know nothing about your book or its particular tortures, but in my experience the answer is YES, it is worth it, the great feeling when it is FINALLY done and you know it DIDN’T suck the soul out of you after all.
March 25, 2009 at 6:58 am
profacero
Good point, Lurker. Very good point.
Also: if you’re working you have to hire house cleaners and such. Have to.
It is much less depressing that way.