Like the end of term

At work today it feels like the end of term at boarding school. There's not much to do at the moment—all my projects are on hold waiting for responses from others. I also have a couple phone and e-mail messages "out there" for which I'm rather impatiently expecting return phone calls. Those of us who've been laid off were told we could use work time to look for other jobs, so the rules have suddenly relaxed. Which is why I'm posting here even though it's not yet lunch. There's also that feeling of anticipation, tinged with excitement, about what will happen next.

Then I just finished a half-hour conversation with the professor whose manuscript I'm working on about the pros and cons of whether he should upgrade his current computer system or buy a new one. It is so easy to absorb his intensity, even though I can manufacture plenty of my own. Intensity is not a bad thing, it's just exhausting, especially in the midst of other intensity-generating situations. I think I will take a walk around the block at lunch, after writing my report, to try calm my mind.