Remember Trigonometry?

When you took trig (if you took it) back in high school (or, I guess, in college), you probably learned about asymptotes. On the graph of a curve, an asymptote is a straight line that almost -- but never quite -- touches the curve. It's sort of an aspirational goal that the curve will never reach.

Why I am I telling you about asymptotes?

Because I've been thinking about them a lot lately. These days, the asymptote in my life is the state of not being behind. You know, not being surrounded by mounds of unread newspapers, unopened mail, and unreported and unwritten stories. The state in which you get your hair cut when it needs it -- not a month later. In which you return calls and e-mail messages within hours (or even days) rather than weeks. In which you watch The Daily Show daily, not in mini-marathons masquerading as weekend study breaks.

I worked flat out this weekend, except for a couple of hours with my family on Saturday night (and the odd mini-marathon as noted above). I finished the law reading (finally), read about 170 pages for my Profiles class and wrote up comments, wrote a query letter plus four additional story ideas (also for Profiles), wrote up three story ideas for RWI (as we are required to do each week), and did the reading for our RWI seminar. I did not get to read ANY of the newspaper (i.e. prepare for the news quiz) or open my mail or return calls or e-mail messages. (Don't even ask about going to the gym.) Or, while we're at it, do squat on my education stories.

No matter how hard I tried, Sunday night still rolled around with me not having reached the asymptote.

It's just out there, taunting me.