Just can't say no. Or can I?

I'm going to complain and then get off my pity potty right after, I swear.

Man, has hit been a crazy few months. I've had long but lovely visits from family. I've gone on trips myself. I've had other visits from dearly missed friends (six houseguests at a time). I've been helping to teach a weekly writing workshop and mentoring three wonderful students. I've got deadlines on my writing that are looming ever nearer. The kids have been busy and my doctor work has been busy. There's the blogging, and also helping to keep other online stuff up and running. As for sleep? Ha! I laugh in your face! (until I pass out at 8 PM and wake up 12 hours later.) My home life in general has resembled...lemme see. You know how right when a tornado touches down in a field, it looks like a dirt bomb went off?

Yeah. That's been my life lately.

There have been no true disasters in my own life (Hello Sandy!) but as a very wise psychologist once told me (Hello Sarah Fine!) sometimes you don't need a Sandy to make your life go nuts. Sometimes it's the little things. Each one by itself is something you can handle, but they're like sandpaper, rubbing away at you until you find that you're worn so thin, it takes very little to break through.

So I've been thinking about the "no" thing. I used to be horrible at saying no. I'm still not great at it. I'm better now. I turned down an offer to teach a college literature course on young adult fiction, for example. I mean, that would be a dream come true for me. Teaching about YA? Awesome! But teaching it de novo, making up a course by myself and dealing with homework and prepping two hour classes?

So I had to say no. For now.

Right now, if you ask anything of me beyond a "hey, how are you?" I'm not going to be able to give much. Sometimes, life gets like that.

What about you? Can you say "no" when you need to?