Of Eye Conditions and Writing Practices

This has been an odd week.  On Sunday afternoon, my left eye started getting filled with mucous.  It's done this from time to time since last year, when I had pink eye.  I didn't have any other pink eye symptoms, so I thought maybe I was just tired or maybe having an allergic reaction to all the pine boughs I'd worked with during our week-end wreath making.

On Monday, the sinuses on the left side of my face seemed swollen, and I had some redness.  Still no pinkness in the eye, but lots of tenderness and throbbing pain as the day went on.  Lots of blurred vision as my sinuses seemed to be draining into my eye, not my nose.  Yesterday was similar.  Today I'm feeling better, but still not completely healed.

I've decided not to go to the gym, in case I do have an eye infection which is contagious--not good to go and sweat all over everything.  I also haven't done any other type of work out.  Not exercising frees up lots of time!

I've needed the extra time--I've got some writing deadlines this week, most notably an essay on women poets and their use of Greek myth to explore the world of work.  It needs be be between 2700 and 3300 words.  In some ways, that's not very much.  I used to write far more in one week-end when I was in grad school.  But it does take time.

My essay is becoming more of a writing process essay, exploring my use of Greek myth to explore the world of work.  I had thought I'd be writing an academic essay, but I haven't found that many poems that fit my thesis.  Oh, there's lots of use of mythology--just not that many poems exploring the work place.

No worries--I know how to work with that.  I'm composing my conclusion in my head, even as I go about my daily work life of meetings and transcript evaluations and the never-ending issue of e-mail management.

This morning I worked on my essay first thing, before I did anything else.  We are approaching the zero hour, and I really want to complete a draft today, a goal that's within sight, since I switched my writing practice.  Usually I blog first, which can leave me too depleted to write anything else.  Or I run out of time.

Maybe I'm feeling more capable of writing because I'm not exercising--that, too, can leave me drained.  Hmm.

Of course, blogging and exercising can also leave me energized and full of interesting ideas.  It's tough to get the right balance.

Today is a day of many meetings, which never leaves me energized, so I knew I needed to get writing done before I headed in to work.  I won't likely be doing any writing this afternoon or evening.

There's still a bit of time this morning--back to my essay writing desk!