**Queen**

Another reason to love Queen:

**What is it about Fall approaching?**

I can see the lightest yellowing of the trees out back. It is the tail end of Labour Day weekend. I am gearing up to teach at the insane hour of 8 AM tomorrow (or at least that is how my students will describe the time of class on the course evaluations, specifically under "factors that inhibited your learning"). I have a to-do list of more than 40 things to do. It would be longer if I remembered to add things to the list (adding them is also on my to-do list). I am sitting here on my last day off, working and sensing the impending craziness I have brought on myself by COMPLETELY over-committing this year.

Now I know myself well enough to realize that I do work best under pressure. I finished the Ph.D. as a single parent with small children in a community where I had no family to help. I moved said kids across the country to a town even further from family just to see what it was like to live in a new place (and learn to snowboard, as promised to #1 son). I took a one year book contract and procrastinated so that I had to write it in two months. Done. I moved to another completely new part of the country (3000 mile jump), started a new job and went up for promotion 4 months after arriving. Success.

So yes pressure = performance for me.

So it makes sense that I would set myself up for a series of fall and spring deadlines and challenges that are near impossible to meet. The second I come off a crazy high pressure schedule of deadlines (assuming I don't crash and burn this time), I tend face the inevitable restlessness that seems to result in my browsing through the job advertisements, daydreaming about cool places to live. So I have learned that I have to stay in this hi pressure mode or I will find myself accepting yet ANOTHER job and moving across country AGAIN.

So on top of the current, to-do list, there is the ongoing plan to write my second book (actually there are two more books to do, but my head will explode if I seriously contemplate more than one at a time. Worse than childbirth. Okay, not really). I want to plan thoughtfully (hah) for a Fulbright year in New Zealand or Australia. I want a sabbatical, but have learned that I don't have the patience to stay somewhere long enough to enjoy one (and how crazy it that?!).

First thing to tackle on my list - dump most of the 3000+ emails in my in box. It is an exercise in serial apologizing as I come across the numerous important emails I never responded to because the inbox is so overwhelmingly full. This has become a 2-3 time a year ritual. You would think I'd learn. Must add reading a book on being an efficient manager to my to-do list.

**Post Surgery Limerick**

The upside of getting cut open
Is the reward of seriously good dopin'
Pain free stupor got sacked,
With a stomach so wracked,
So I limp through the house just a mopin'

**There is a reason why some things are free**

I was given the most delightful gift from #1 son this week - a Kindle.

I learned rather quickly that I live in a bubble - free of irritating electromagnetic waves that would allow me to take advantage of the wireless downloading of Kindle books. So I must either walk down the road about a 1/2 mile or take the Kindle to work and let stuff download there. So it won't be subscribing to the NY Times, but I have downloaded a bunch of "sample" chapters to try before buying the books.

I also learned that there are Kindle books available for free. So I grabbed a freebie - just to see if I like reading on this device (I do). Now I understand why the book was free - it was a Harlequin Romance. You get what you pay for. And now I am willing to pay. Next step: learning how to delete books off the Kindle.

**Thumbing One's Nose at the Hamptons**

Okay, this is NOT how it is done.

The NY Times published an article and slide show today of a house on Long Island that is decorated as a response to the excesses of the Hamptons. Lots of vintage stuff - a "schoolhouse" look, if you will.

The article stated, "The schoolhouse décor, which incorporates elements like linoleum, mop sinks and graffiti-covered classroom chairs, is their “tongue in cheek” way of countering “the excess we were seeing in the Hamptons."

Interesting idea, but give a looksee at the slide show and the incredible prices they paid for furniture and accessories. If one pays $1300.00 for a floor lamp or $3500 for a wall sconce, or $510 for some industrial metal shelving, or $1500 for 8 vintage classroom chairs, this is NOT thumbing your nose at the Hamptons. Just because it is not "overstuffed couches or antiques," does not mean it is still not insanely excessive or low maintenance. You want to thumb your nose at the Hamptons, then shop at Goodwill (and not the one in the Hamptons)!