You’d think that after sailing through the audit that I’ve spent the last week preparing for, I’d be high as a kite. That’s what you’d think, isn’t it? I should be singing songs of jubilation and/or spinning like a top.

But no, that’s not what happened. All I wanted all weekend was to have it behind me, but once it was, I got laid out flat by it. I spent the whole afternoon in a daze, not quite able to focus on anything for more than a few minutes at a time. Of all the work I had lined out for myself to get done today, I had to put a lot of it off until tomorrow. (As usual, by the way.)

And that’s probably why it took me until almost 8:30 tonight to feel as if I had accomplished enough to quit for the day. There’s a point of diminishing returns (hey, I didn’t get a “C” in Econ 101 for nothing), and I probably should have recognized it before I wasted so much time getting so little done.

And yet, in spite of all this, there’s a pile of outgoing mail on the corner of my desk. It’s a pile I should be proud of, or at least not ashamed to show anyone who asks, “What did you do today?”

“All that,” I should say, pointing proudly.

The audit itself came and went with embarrassing ease. The guy was here a little before the appointed time of 10:00 am, and he was gone by 10:30. He asked the usual questions, and I gave him the usual answers. He took the two inch thick binder full of documents I’d prepared for him and found everything he needed on one sheet. “See you next time,” he said cheerily as he left.

He didn’t use the bathroom, either, although at the last minute I spent half an hour on my hands and knees cleaning the gunk off the floor. What a waste.