I Can't Smart Today Because I Have the Dumb

One of the reasons I chose to teach (and by teach, I mean proctor since it's just a bunch of kids working independently on computers in a lab) summer school was that it would give me plenty of time to read and write. The other reason was that it's easy money and I needed to get some bills paid off, but that's another post. I have a pile of books I planned to plow through and I had a general plotline for my third book put together, so I had plenty of work to do while the little kiddies toiled away trying to recapture the credit they'd lost.

Problem is that I am starting to think that I've caught the dumb. Or, more accurately, I think I've caught the lazy. As I sit here watching these kids fiddle and mess and stare and decide what music they're going to play on Pandora and pretty much do anything but the work their parents paid good money to give them the chance to do, I am starting to feel like I'm doing the same thing. I have checked my email some eleventy billion times today. And I've spend entirely too much time on MyFitnessPal, the website I use to track my eating habits and exercise. Yesterday (promise not to tell), I bought a pair of shoes online. In other words, I've done lots of stuff that's not what I'm supposed to be doing. In just short of four weeks, I've written a grand total of about 1500 words on my new manuscript. Granted, I have also done some outlining, so it's not as bad as it seems, but awfully close. Oh, and all those books? I'm almost finished with one. That's right. One. Single. Book.

So today, I declare that I will no longer allow myself to be victim to laziness and apathy. I will finish this book today and start a new one. I will get 1000 words written today if I have to hire someone to hold a gun to my head to do it. I can't blame these kids for my lack of work ethic. It's all on me.

Okay, I have to go now. I have work to do.