Work

My kids had the day off from school today, but hubby and I had to work. We left the 12-year-old at home--she probably didn't crawl out of bed until after noon--and the 9-year-old came to work with me. Thanks to a good coloring book, she sat patiently through my two classes and office hours. Two funny things happened.

As we were walking to my office, we passed the campus daycare. A dad was just getting out of his car to drop off his little girl. She looked at us and said--loudly, of course--"Is that her grandma with her?" Ack! The dad, who was probably close to my age, looked very embarrassed.

But then after my second class, a student walked up to me and said, "I don't know how you do it all: professor, department chair, parent, writer." And she only knows about the textbooks, not the novels.

She's not the first person to ask how I do it all. I never know how to answer. I am really, really busy, but then so are most of the people I know. There are lots of things I don't have in my life. For example, I watch virtually no television. I'm a good multitasker. I think of plot ideas and dialog while I'm getting ready for work in the morning, sitting in the car waiting for afternoon carpool, sitting in endless meetings. And I've learned to write almost anywhere. At the kitchen table while the kids do homework, at gymnastics and doctors' and dentists' offices, in airports and hotels. I've even written during an elementary school spelling bee.

So that's how I do it. How about you?