Caveat: Punched in the Face and Other Pleasures

I woke up from my midday nap (which is now a thing, I guess) feeling like I'd been punched in the face. Punched twice, even – once for each side of my jaw. My teeth hurt. My jaw hurt. My mouth felt numb and swollen inside. I think they must have zapped new territory, this time, or in a different way.

Argh. It's not really very pleasant.

Work was a bit frustrating, too. I'm supposed to be part time, right? Maybe I'm supposed to be doing something like 20% of full-time. I am, on paper: I only teach class on Saturdays.

But… they keep finding things for me to do – such that, in the last 6 days or so, I've worked closer to 50-75% of full-time: correcting things, making tests, etc. The hardest part is that these are all the tasks I like least about my job, regularly – it's like having to do all the annoying, tedious busywork surrounding teaching a class without the pleasure of actually getting to present the class.

OK. Calming down. Taking breaths. I will be fine. I'm just venting a little bit.

I'm pleased to have a job where I can feel useful and a boss that's flexible enough to let all this happen (although to be clear it's not pure generosity – there are financial adjustments that mean no sacrifices are being made). I will see this as further training in acquiring patience and equanimity.

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