The worst thing about the intense pressure to get work done right now isn’t even the stress, although that’s bad enough. It’s the fact that as much as I try, I’m having big problems finding time to sit and read. That’s so important to me, even when I’m not reading something as moving and wonderful as Rob’s book. But I continue to make time, and it gives me a little perspective, you know? What Rob and his family have endured and overcome is pretty amazing, especially when you lay it up against the petty problems I’m having trying to finish a bunch of miserable spreadsheets. Plus, I feel like I’ve known Schuyler since before she was born, and it’s like watching one of my own nieces blossom and/or flourish.

Still, despite all the pressure and stress, I got out of the house long enough this morning to get a haircut. It’s great that I have this down to a smooth science now. The hair salon has me on file, and they know what they did to me the last time I was there (way too long ago). But just in case they’re not sure, I tell them I want it short enough so that I don’t have to comb it. At all. It takes hardly any time at all to cut, and it’ll take even less time to wash in the shower tomorrow morning. So really, I was gaining time to do more work by taking time out of my work day to get a haircut. See how that works?

Thank goodness for the Internet, so that I don’t have to listen to Wolf Blitzer on these primary nights. I do tune in at 5:00 pm, when the polls close in the east, to get the projections, but instead I get a breathless, pointless explanation of the reasons that they can’t project a winner based on less than one percent of the vote, followed by pie charts and touch screen demonstrations of that very same meaningless one percent of the vote. And it goes on and on until the polls start to match up with the exit data, and they tell me who won. Instead of putting myself through all that tonight, I put myself through American Idol and then checked the Internet. (In case you didn’t know, Clinton won three out of four, which means she’s sticking around. And McCain wrapped up the GOP nomination, which means he can stop badmouthing the other Republicans and start badmouthing Clinton and Obama, as he should.)