Waking Up is Hard to Do

I'm so tired. I haven't been to bed while the clock read "pm" for a very long time. My life is an amazing whirlwind of beauty and aspiration right now. I can honestly say that I'm living up to my recently acquired nickname as a "Technological Force of Nature." Between being a single-mom, completing the final year of my Master's degree and working as the chair for Women in Computer Science at the University of Oregon, I have also been passionately shaking the publicity tree for my latest project, Picture Me in Computing Day.

Born of an idea by Julia Fallon (the Crazy Idea Factory) picmecomp has become a movement greater than two intelligent women had a right to believe it would. With the website, promotion, blogging and research, I'm spending more time on picmecomp than homework and school work combined! I've been staying up until three in the morning, getting up at seven and working hard not to neglect my children or friends. You'll find that my next sentence is missing, due to the fact that it has been sacrificed as an offering to the gods of the Internet in an effort to get all y'all to participate on 11-10-10 in recognition of all my hard work! -- - -- - - -

One thing I've learned by trying to juggle a seemingly endless stream of flaming swords is that it's much better to refuse to take one on than to drop one on your foot! Some of us find it very difficult to decline opportunities to help, even when our hands are already full. For this reason, I'm providing the following helpful list of ways to say "No!"

1. When you hear someone say the words "I've been meaning to ask you..." turn and run!


2. Associate an email filter with the words "help", "request" or "your time." Then, have it autosend a reply saying that you will get back to them as soon as you return from entertaining the troops on the international space station.


3. Acknowledge all requests by including the phrase "your inquiry is currently 4,237th in the queue. Please continue to hold and I'll be with you as soon as all previous requests have been handled."


4. When asked to help at an event, resist your urge to join-in by faking a heart attack. Not only will you have an effective excuse, but you just may wake up to find someone feeding you Jell-o!

and if none of those work for you, try:

5. "That sounds like a great opportunity. I happen to be a little overextended at the moment, but please think of me next time!"

I hope you've found this list to be helpful. Since I, myself, don't expect to be slowing down any time soon, I'm counting on you to take particularly good care of yourself so that you'll be around to check me out of the loony bin at the end of the school year!