All I managed today, work-wise, was reconciling the December bank statement. That's important, but it doesn't really help me get through the 1099s or all those payroll and sales tax returns that absolutely must be completed before the end of this month.

I now have two weeks and one weekend left. In the month, that is, and before the deadline. And I think I've proven over the last few weekends that not much is going to get done then. My work life is deadline-driven, no matter how much I keep denying it. My attitude has gone way downhill these last months. I can't seem to keep going the way I used to.

And of course I had to take time out to do homework this afternoon. I also did a little grocery shopping for Mom, who's feeling better but still not ready for the crowds at the supermarket. (Neither was I, but that's another story.) And she really wouldn't have liked the bad Sunday drivers. (Neither did I.)

It's something I noticed last Sunday, when I was out driving much earlier than usual. The people roaming about in their cars didn't seem to have any sense of purpose. They were meandering more than driving, which is frustrating for someone who's only out driving because he has to get somewhere. They seemed a different breed of humanity, and that outing justified in my mind my usual Sunday idleness. I'm a lot safer at home on outpatient day.

Speaking of homework (see way up above somewhere), I'm going to have to give up the notion of changing anyone's attitude about the right way to teach a language. I reread the syllabus for my ASL class, and it says something about leaving English (and your voice) at the door.

They'll have to forgive me if I still think in English, at least for a little while. It might take the whole semester, although it took less time than that for me to do some rudimentary thinking in Spanish when I took Spanish 1 a few years back. The difference is, I can watch Spanish-language TV all day long if I want to, and absorb a lot of it by osmosis. There's no sign-language equivalent for Univision and Telemundo, though.

Tomorrow is supposed to be a holiday. If that means no school and no mail, it'll be way too much like a Sunday to suit me. I'll be putting in a regular work day, because the Boss hasn't recognized any new holidays since the first Thanksgiving in, like, 1620. He's pretty conservative when it comes to work (or anything else).