If you can learn only one thing from reading this journal (other than to not let soap get into your nose), let it be the knowledge that New Orleans is not a 24-hour type of town.

Sure, the Big Easy is open 24 hours a day... but, by God, a trip there has to last longer than that. I learned this lesson last weekend when I headed south with a few associates for a short business/pleasure trip. We were parked at our hotel on Bourbon Street no later than 7 p.m. Friday night but were on I-10 West and headed out of town by the same time the next day.

In the interim, we managed to make the rounds of the French Quarter, get a few drinks in us, sample the wares at more than one Bourbon Street sex shop, discover that the hotel had given us free gin in my wet bar and play phone tag as one member of my party chased her drunk friend around the French Quarter trying to pull her from the grasp of a would-be lover that seemed somewhat shady. After Friday's fun, I was up early enough Saturday for an early business luncheon and spent the afternoon in and around Jackson Square.

I'd been down there for Mardi Gras and I'd been down there just to be down there... but until last weekend, I'd always had a few days to soak it all in. And, believe it or not, I'd always left feeling fairly rested (even after my Mardi Gras trip). I think it has something to do with pacing yourself. We knew we only had a short time in the city and we did our damnedest to make the best of it. The result was that I left feeling like I'd been there a month. Calling it exhausted would be putting it lightly.

Of course, who minds being exhausted after getting the chance to play around in New Orleans? I know I don't. After all, it beat the hell out of whatever boring tasks I would have been doing (or avoiding doing) back home. Besides, good things happened at the luncheon, no one was raped by shady characters in the Quarter, and we got a break from reality.

* * * * * *

The break is over now. Reality is back. And I don't know about how it looks from your end... but it's sort of ugly on mine.

I have a five-page research paper due next Wednesday.
I need to do some serious video editing in the next week.
I need shoot two dozen or so photos this weekend for PhotoComm.
I need to put the finishing touched on my PhotoComm photo story.
I need to assemble a portfolio for PhotoComm.
I need to study for two civil service tests... one on May 4 & May 13.
I'd like to save JohnDoe.org from implosion.
I have finals May 9, May 10 & May 14.
I have THREE finals on Friday the 10th.
I need to pass everything and graduate.
I need a job.

* * * * * *

Sorry if this registers on your all-time crappy entry list... but I just had to get something on the screen. I know that sort of attitude isn't good for quality control, but I've sat down every day this week with the intention of writing something but hadn't gotten around to it. It seems I've lacked the mental focus it takes to organize thoughts and to write them down (as evidenced above).

It just seems that one moment, I'm in the mood to write... And in the next, it's the last thing I want to do. Actually, I've felt that way about damn near everything all week long. One minute, I'm dedicated to the idea of the studying... And the next, I want no part of it. During part of the day, I feel stressed to no end... Yet, during others (and for no reason at all) I feel as though I don't have a care in the world.

It's an interesting cycle to watch, but living it is getting old.