Tuesday Slice: I can't be exhausted already...can I?

I awaken, bleary-eyed, fully aware that I am in need of another hour of sleep.  Stumbling to the kitchen, I manage to make a small pot of coffee and empty the dishwasher without breaking anything.  As the coffee brews, I make my way to the study to meditate.  I choose a two-minute session, worried that anything longer will have me sleeping in my desk chair.

It is the fourth day of school for our students, and the first day they will come to the library for orientation and checkout.  Fourteen classes of kindergarteners through third graders, with fifth and fourth helping our youngest learn how to wield a shelf marker and computer scanner.  Tomorrow there will be eighteen classes, then thirteen, then a final fifteen.

I need to be awake and energetic, so I can be warm and welcoming for my students' first visit of the year.  So why do I feel exhausted (besides just the obvious lack of sleep)?  As I head back to the kitchen to get my coffee (sweet nectar of the gods!), I pass the wall calendar.  A quick glance reminds me that I have been at work a solid three weeks already.  Weeks filled with professional development sessions, meetings, and collaboration.  Days filled with cataloging, distributing teacher materials, scheduling, answering emails, problem-solving, planning, straightening out library furniture, making ID badges.  Ten- and eleven-hour workdays--and all before we've seen a single student for checkout.

I am excited to finally see classes today...and I'll be equally excited to see my pillow tonight.  Until then, may the caffeine work its magic.