This Is Hard for Me, but Today I Said NO. Actually Waved A White Flag.

After a 16 hour day on my couch trying to finish the grading for the semester, I finally am waving the towel. I didn't finish. Ugh.

This is the trouble with being out of my house and office for 14 hour days during the week - I never get to the student work that I'm supposed to read. They are most important to me, too, and I couldn't live with myself if I didn't give them my fullest attention when they turned in their writing portfolios.

So, I had to cancel. Robert Galinsky invited me to meet his friend Jay O' Sanders for a staged reading of Unexplored Interior in NYC, and all week long I've been looking forward to it. In fact, I couldn't wait.

A technological and creative partnership with Google+ will allow the play to be seen in NYC and at the Kigali Genocide Memorial Center in Rwanda, where it will be shown on a screen at their newly constructed outdoor amphitheater via Google+ Hangout On Air (a live video conference call featuring up to ten people).

It is a story of Tutsis and Hutus and the Rwandan genocide. I felt honored to be invited to the event, but I'm knee deep in finishing end-of-the-semester work. In fact, I am feeling overwhelmed. I have to pass.

Usually a 'yes' man, I called everyone to say that I had to cancel (and believe it or not, a huge weight was lifted off my chest - I felt relieved to know I could finish the work needing to be done and now I have time plan ahead to another rigorous week). A 7 hour day in the Apple would have been great, but I will accomplish so much more at home, including a shout out to my mother.

Happy Mother's Day. 

This will give me a reason to smile today.

- We Love You, Mom!!!

I hope my card arrived on Saturday.