Instead of going to my nephews’ softball game tonight, I found myself still working at 7:30 pm. So when the phone rang and Julie (yeah, she’s still around) asked, “Are you sitting and relaxing or do they still have you going at it?” I told her exactly what I was doing. I was thinking, of course, that she’d commiserate with me. I wasn’t thinking that she’d have something else for me to do tonight.

But of course there’s always one more thing to do, every night. That’s probably why I can never get myself to bed before midnight, or one or two or sometimes three in the morning. I’m not always working at those hours. It’s just that I can always find one more thing to do. Every night, and no matter how tired I am.

She’s actually in the same boat I am, and in fact the only reason she was still working was because the Boss had given her an assignment. Then he asked her when she was going to get it done, and she said she’d start tonight. And then he told her not to worry about it tonight. How about if I give you a week? he suggested. Okay, she told him, but I’m still going to start tonight.

That’s the kind of emotional tug-of-war that some people play with each other. I try to stay as far away as possible, but when Julie called and asked for help, I didn’t feel I had the right to say no. Of course I had the right to say no, technically. But something inside wouldn’t let me.

Naturally, at 8:30 I was still working, getting back to what I was doing before Julie called. By that time I could hardly see, so I gave it up for the night. Tomorrow comes all too soon anyway, and even though I expected to be up for several more hours, I knew I could keep coming up with one more thing to do. It’s just that a person who doesn’t know when to quit still has to quit some time, so why not now?