oh yeah, it's monday...

Seven Reasons Why I’m Losing My Eternal Optimism
(for the moment)

1. My favorite radio station has switched to 24-hour Christmas music.
2. Despite the fact that I didn't really have anything to do today, I managed to do very little actual work. This is becoming a trend.
3. My favorite student this semester did not turn in her partial research paper draft and seems to have dropped off the face of the earth. Another one of my students may have plagiarized (sudden lucid and articulate prose that's not really typical of his writing), but I can't figure out where from.
4. Our dog had yet another bout of inexplicable, stinky and messy digestive upset last night. We think (hope) it might be a food allergy. But it keeps coming and going without apparent cause, which makes us nervous and him sad (because he's usually so well housetrained and gets upset if he has an accident).
5. My cat, Olive, sleeps too much. To make up for all her sleep during the day, she wakes us up at 5am scratching on the bedroom door. April's a very light sleeper, and while I'm a fairly deep sleeper, I'm obviously still being unconsciously disturbed because I wake up feeling exhausted.
6. I seem to be universally behind on everything--schoolwork, my dissertation, correspondence, even my hobbies, like livejournal and karate.

And the kicker...

7. Our water heater broke last week right before we went away for Thanksgiving. It was supposed to be replaced today, but when the plumber came he announced that I'd ordered the wrong water heater and would have to ask Sears to correct the error. Then he left, and I spent the next hour on the phone with the DIY triumvirate (Sears, Home Depot, Lowes) trying to figure out which had the best deal on the type of water heater I needed and who had them in stock (since what I need is apparently less common than the normal natural gas water heater). I finally purchased one from Lowes, and now I just have to hope that the plumber is able to come tomorrow when I'm home (and that everything goes smoothly) so we don't have to go another day showering in the gym or at a friend's house (not to mention the fact that I had to wash dishes tonight--they were getting scary--by boiling lots of water).

Okay, I'm done now. After all, Monday is almost over, right?