I feel so fantastic this morning. I wish I could take yoga every day. I do it on my own most evenings, but I work harder in a class. Plus the atmosphere is much more relaxing.

I am much more clear-headed and energized this morning, although I still have no idea what I'm going do about this teaching offer. If I lived closer I would take it in a heartbeat, knowing it would mean more time on campus and more energy, even though it would be more time away from writing. But the time schedule is a puzzle. The two time options I have been offered are not good. One is early morning, which actually works great with train schedules and AJ's school schedule. But it's three days a week. That's a lot of commuting. It is, however, a much smoother commute, thanks to the way the schedules line up, than I had last year. On a good day with no office hours, I could do the whole thing in six hours. Keep in mind that the commute alone took me 5 hours last year. But the change to a three day a week course would mean revamping my syllabus. I'm not sure when I'll have time to do that.

The other time slot is late afternoon and is absolutely the worst in terms of transportation lineup. The whole thing would take me ten hours. Only a half on hour of that is more class time. The rest would be spent sitting around waiting for trains and shuttles. A four hour difference. I wouldn't be home until 10 p.m. But I wouldn't have to redo the syllabus. I also wouldn't lose my prime work time on AJ’s school mornings to teaching. But I might be too tired and crabby to make good use of it. I don't think this is really an option.

So the question is, do I want to do this at all? How much chaos do I want to put myself and my family through? I'm pretty sure my husband thinks I should turn this down and just finish the diss, and maybe he's right. But maybe this would help me stay focused. When I'm teaching I'm much less apt to wallow in self-doubt about my writing and I get very energized by my students and colleagues, by not working in a vacuum.

I need to figure this out by this afternoon. Gulp.

Perhaps I could hire a knight to figure this out with me. If I should take the job, maybe he could be my bodyguard while hanging out in train stations. I'm pretty sure that would assure me of a seat to myself.

[The beginning of the teaching drama appeared in two stressed out entries yesterday. Click back if you care.]

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