It's draining being a working mother.

I'm teaching full-time for another eight weeks. I've been there since after Christmas break. Quinn is doing well in school all day, but when she gets home she is extremely hungry for my attention. I am extremely hungry for, perhaps, a nap.

I spend all of my energy at school. I try not to. I try to relax a bit here and there, but being in charge of 20-25 teenagers constantly until the end of the day is not very relaxing.

Today I spent the entire day in front of my computer. I polished up units for The Scarlet Letter and Romeo & Juliet...stuff I've taught before but had to review and tweak and fix and re-print. I still am not really 100 percent ready for my classes tomorrow. It's 10:00 p.m. though, and I don't care.

I did enjoy the fact that I could get us through Poe's "The Raven" on Friday with absolutely no preparation. I think I've "taught" that poem 20 times. Yes, yes...consonance. Yes, yes...assonance. Yes, the angels named her Lenore because she's probably dead. Yes, yes the Raven might have been a figment of his imagination. I love the poem, though, and it's never drudgery to go through it again.

Anyway. I need to peel myself off this chair. It's hard. I feel like I live here in my office, like I will start gasping for air if I leave it for any length of time. I am the girl in the plastic bubble. I am John Travolta. I am going to be jumped over by an older woman on a horse.