Saltwater or Laffy?

Taffy is one of the only nicknames I have picked up over the years. (Well, besides "la bruja" (the witch) which my darling high-school students call me - but that’s another story.) Some of my siblings call me Taffy - I guess it originally stemmed from difficulty pronouncing a K.

Lately this nickname has taken on a new meaning for me.

I remember walking through the mall when I was younger - and always stopping to watch the taffy-pulling machine in the candy shop just outside of ZCMI. The taffy was stretched between two big metal bars and then when it was stretched as far as it would go, another metal arm would hit right in the middle and pull the taffy in another direction.

This week I feel like taffy - pulled painfully in too many different directions at the same time. Too many people with claim on my time and energy.

There’s a great line in The Fellowship of the Ring where Bilbo describes himself as "old":

I know I don't look it, but I'm beginning to feel it in my heart.
I feel thin, sort of stretched, like butter, scraped over too much bread.
I need a holiday. A very long holiday.

Now, while I would never dream of describing myself as thin - physically - every day I feel a little thinner emotionally and mentally. It gets harder and harder to cope with unexpected crises when you are already at maximum stress load. You’re stretched as far as you can go and suddenly from out of nowhere a big metal bar comes flying in and streches you off in a different direction.

Scene opens on Taffy frantically multi-tasking; grading tests, cleaning her school room, counseling stressed-out kids, planning next week’s lessons, looking for lost CDs, etc.
Enter the first "metal bar" ...

Darling Students: "We can’t make it to the 4 hour AP practice test you are doing on Saturday morning, can you do it on Friday too?"
Taffy: "Sure!"

Sister Jones: "Can you teach the Young Women’s lesson on Sunday. Oh and you need to drop off 4-generation sheets to each of them to get filled out before Sunday."
Taffy: "Sure."

Neighbor: "Could you please do something with the knee-high field of dandelions that passes as your front yard. They keep blowing onto my perfectly manicured golf-green and contaminating it"
Taffy: "Sure." (I currently don’t even OWN a lawnmower, but I think I have a pair of garden clippers. I’ll see what I can do.)

Parent: "We want our child that has only come to class once in the last three weeks to get totally caught up this weekend. Can you re-teach him everything he needs to know?"
Taffy: "Sure?"

Principal: "Oh, by the way, did I tell you that you have to have a complete description of everything you teach all year in every class handed in by Monday?"
Taffy: "Aargh!"

Hey, wait a minute! I am Tangent Woman - this should be easy for me.
Oh, no! Someone must have discovered my Kryptonite.

I need a holiday. A very long holiday. :P