Even Fantasizing about Bling can't Eliminate Stress

*sigh* I really want some bling for X-Mas. But I don't think I'll be getting any. In fact, I'm not really expecting much in the way of presents since I already got my holiday gift early--a new computer. And believe me, I love my new baby. We've been together now for a few months and each day my love grows. I have to emphasize how special this computer is, largely because I'd been suffering with an old ass 1997 laptop up until it went kaput at the beginning of fall semester. Now I'm able to have DSL (huzzah!) rather than crappy dial up and I can do all the fun stuff I couldn't before. Like store my entire music collection as mp3 files! I soooooo want an iPod for my birthday.

But I digress. Bling. It always makes me happy. It doesn't even have to be the real stuff, just so long as it's shiny and sparkly. I really want these matching choker and bracelet combos in the pic. In my mind I've already plotted out different outfits I could wear them with. I would look so fabulous. *sigh*

Unfortunately, fantasizing about bling is not alleviating my current stress. First of all, I need to finish final edits on my article that's getting published and send it off. But every time I look at it I start getting queasy and freaked out about the fact that it's going to appear in a major print journal. I'm being totally neurotic, I know, but I need to sit down and get this shit done by Friday or else I'll never be able to relax over the holidy. At the same time I have to start working on my next chapter, as I've promised committee members a draft by the time we return in January. I can't seem to focus on it though. Instead I get sucked into working on my various novels that I'm writing. Yes, I'm writing several--okay, three. Am I totally nuts or what? And they are ALL the going to be part of different series! They're all quite different, but still in the paranormal chick lit/romance genre. I know. I should really be concentrating on one (namely the sequel to my first novel) and getting it finished. Instead I seem to be hopping between them and adding bits here and there. Now I'm sort of feeling pulled in so many different directions that I'm not sure which I want to work on--and thus I'm getting nothing done. This is partly due to the fact that I feel guilty about working on creative writing when I should be doing research. So for the last few days I've been doing...nothing. Well, I mean I've been watching movies and obsessing about Jake Gyllenhaal, but you know what I'm saying. Nothing tangibly productive.