Something has happened to my internal clock, and to the internal clocks of my students, and my husband, and my poor children, who usually hop out of bed pretty wide awake every morning (my kids can go from asleep to awake in .2 seconds). Every day this week I've surfaced painfully from a deep sleep and every day this week I've had to drag both L. and T. out of bed. Even the dog has a hard time getting up. She follows me downstairs in the dark, but races to her second dog bed--the one in the office--to catch a little extra snooze time while I blow dry my hair.

When I was so sick with the stomach bug during our recent beach vacation, the only good thing that came out of it was that I lost two pounds. Coming home from vacation weighing less than when we left was almost enough to make up for eating nothing but saltines for two days--almost, but not quite. I love eating out, and eating out when on vacation is all part of the fun. Even before the actual bug knocked me out, I just didn't have an appetite that whole week.

Yesterday afternoon I was chatting with a colleague and commiserating with her over how little we've been getting done these days. The work has been piling up, yet our energy and motivation seems to be grinding slowly to a halt--winding down, notch by notch. I'll sit at the computer and try and work, then look up and see the sunlight filtering in through the tall holly trees and oaks in the backyard.