But enough about the movies.

Lately I've been feeling kind of trifurcated. Worse, quartered. My life seems to run in three or four parallel courses, so removed from one another as to feel like alternative universes. There's my home life, my work life at the library, my teaching life at The Greek Institute, and my much-neglected creative life. And never the four shall meet. Which leaves me about six hours a day for each alter ego. Work takes more than its share, because in the United States we actually have to work to get paid (bastards! I'll show them!), clocking in at about eight hours each day plus transit time. So already one of the mirror worlds is going to get shorted. Sleep is the second-largest draw, and recent attempts at upping my caffeine intake like my coffeehouse managing days of old - four shots of espresso and a splash of chocolate milk? Sure, why not! - have resulted only in a need for even more shut-eye. Teaching itself is a great joy, but grading homework and preparing the next lessons are extremely tedious and time-consuming endeavors, all the more so when you already allegedly do something else to make a living. And time with my wife is non-negotiable. Guess which me gets the crumbs of minutes and seconds scattered randomly throughout the week? Yep, Mr. Creativity. It's bad enough trying to get my inner artist to say something that isn't crap, period, but try getting him to perform on command. Grumble grumble grumble.