Whew

I have to admit it was comforting to read this quote from National Endowment for the Arts chairman Dana Gioia, an American Book Award-winning poet who announced he's stepping down from his NEA post early next year:

"I have done most of the things I set out to do. I really want to go back to writing. I haven't had time for my own writing. I write all the time for the NEA, official writing. Since I have become chairman, I have not published a poem."

It's hard to write when you have a demanding -- and, let's face it, often stimulating -- job. Sometimes it feels like I'm the only one who can't seem to manage it. Though I'm hardly an an American Book Award-winning writer and I don't exactly head a government agency with a multimillion-dollar budget.

Today I came off one of the most intense work deadlines in recent memory. I worked two 13-hour days in a row followed by a 12-hour day; on one of them the work was so relentless that I (1) forgot to vote and (2) missed a therapy appointment. On more than one occasion this week, I heard myself saying to a colleague, in the interest of calming the sea, "If I sound agitated right now, it has nothing to do with you." (On at least one occasion, it kind of did.)

But now that it's over, I have a satisfied feeling. I did some good work, and I'll have some good work to show for it.