Busy, busy, busy...

I'm ultra busy right now. My wife took a three week vacation from her job to do some interpreting work (Japanese/English) for big bucks and I'm filling in at her office for her. So we are quadruple dipping for a while (her vacation pay + interpreting pay + my pay for filling in + my research pay). But being at her job 8 hours a day really puts a dent in the other projects I'm working on. I pretty much get up at 5 am, feed and walk my two huge Akita's in this fucking weather, get to her office by 7:30 am, work until 4:00 pm, go home and walk the dogs again, go to a coffee shop and work until 9-10 pm, and then go home and pass out. She is also working 7 am until 8:30 or 9 pm every day so she's exhausted too. We've been a little grumpy around each other lately...

In addition to working at her office I've got a good research gig going (research for an hourly rate), I'm putting together a rather lucrative book proposal (the funding is already there, I just need to negotiate the details), and I'm fleshing out my lectures for Spring quarter (I'm teaching a huge class of 240 students).

Last night I got a new prescription and picked up the starter pack to begin, again, taking Chantix. You take it for one week and it slowly builds up in your system. Then, when it's at a therapuetic level you quit smoking. So for me that will be next Tuesday. Until then I'm trying not to go over the deep end and smoke too much, but it's tough not to. A friend of mine can either smoke or not smoke - it doesn't seem to phase him. He can smoke for a week and then not smoke for two weeks and then pick it back up. I can't do that: If I smoke, I SMOKE; If I done, I DON'T. Marlboro Reds, Baby - Marlboro Reds.

The other thing is that I had pretty much de-smokified my house, car, clothing etc. Now my car stinks again, but for the sake of my wife and the house I've been smoking in the garage despite the fact that it's literally 10 degrees in there (lower at night). And, I was just ready to begin the process of repainting the inside of the house and ripping up the carpet which would have really gotten the smoke smell out, but now I have to wait until I've quit smoking for good, again.

Smoking again is also definitely fucking with my health. When I do sleep I don't feel as rested. I'm tired all day. I'm coughing shit up again. This just sucks. Oh well, it's a fucking drag, but I've got to start over again. If you can't tell I'm rather pissed off about this smoking thing.

More as the mood strikes...

Dr. K