what's cooking?

I think I’m tired.

This week I felt that if I saw the “I Love Lucy” episode about vitameatavegamin tonic I would have called the number on the screen and ordered not a bottle but a case.

Maybe it was the head cold that hit last Thursday and slid outward to my ears Friday afternoon. Maybe it was the 9-5 job, the grandkids spending 3 days at the house during the week (even though our son Adam and his fiancée Sam did most of the duties during the day), the free-lancing articles that kept me interviewing very interesting people and trying to write up the subject matter or the never-ending pile of books that publishers have been sending me to review-whatever, or even the snoring husband-whatever, I’m exhausted.

Now everything I mentioned, I love doing and I don’t want to stop doing any of it. I had a three day weekend and worked the entire time. If I wasn’t writing, I was running errands, cooking, baking, reading and trying to be an amateur counselor.

This week is our daughter’s 4th wedding anniversary. Normally I’d have them over for dinner. I am so not doing that this year. First off, I have 3 books to read, 4 columns to write, 3 book reviews to submit, an article on Alzheimer’s and M-power and one on two of the latest forms of breast cancer treatment. Oh, a dentist appointment and the usual household errands. This is just my list for Saturday and Sunday

And as I mentioned before:

I AM TIRED!

I’m betting I’m not the only one who feels this way-I’ve been taking a mental poll of those I talk to. Like anyone, I always say “how are you?” at the beginning of a conversation and e-mails-most of the answers come back as “Really tired, how are you?”

We all do too much. I’m thinking a lot lately that slowing down would be so much FUN to try.

Yes, a week without going to the day job, a week without loading my cart at Henry’s or perusing the aisles at Costco (or Vons), a week without getting up at 7:30 a.m (and 6 a.m. on the weekdays) on the weekends to “hurry and get to our errands” and a week without my desk calendar looking as if I should staple another row of boxes onto the right side. This would be so nice.

Of course I realize somewhere around day 3 I’d be bored silly and wondering “what the heck was I thinking?” But still I’d like to try this experiment. And I do mean staying at home, not doing a “staycation”, or leaving on an actual vacation-just clearing my calendar.

I do not want to use it for doctors appointments either.

Here’s a thought, let’s all decide to try an experiment (No, not for a week). Let’s chose a day of protest. We will not do anything that could be remotely defined as work, enjoyable or not.

To Life!