In which my brain refuses to function

I can't decide if I'm tired or just useless. I don't know what it is about Fridays. I just have the hardest trouble doing anything productive at all on a Friday. It's as if my brain decides that a four-day week is perfectly sufficient and we'll just take Friday off thanks very much. The problem with that of course is that I actually have things to do on Fridays - work and otherwise. Apparently though, I have no ability to will myself to do things come Friday. All motivation has been exhausted Monday through Thursday and it's all I can do to haul my carcass off the sofa on the fifth day. Mind you, it doesn't help one's enthusiasm to wake up to the messiest kitchen in history (cleaning up after dinner on thursday night was clearly another step much too far). We've been trying really hard to get the sodding dishes done each night before bed because I just cannot cope with the idea of cooking at 8pm when I come home to find last night's dishes, but last night...well.

I have a two week gap in lectures which I think might be why I'm feeling so grey and fuzzy today - when the daunting task of teaching and writing lectures week to week started early October, I had this date in my mind as a period of respite to aim for. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy the lectures and the interactions with students, really, but lecturing is a very draining process. I find it to be really adrenal (not sure if that's a word, but it's the closest I can come to describing the feeling...it's akin to going on stage for a play I think, and the buzz and exhaustion that you get when the curtain drops). So having a two week break, particularly as I'm also writing all my lectures on the hoof, is something me and my body have been looking forward to.

Friday is meant to me one of my 'research days' where I don't do anything bar my own research work, and I think that might also have something to do with the uselessness that seems to set in each week on this day (seeing as I'm having a little bit of trouble figuring out just what direction I want to take with my research life). Ah maybe I'm just tired. I guess it's ok to be tired given I'm still adjusting to actually having a proper grown up job (for the first time in my life. Sad given I'm nearly 30, but I was doing productive things until now, honest). And I did go to the gym this morning, so I can at least feel mildly smug about that. So. Perhaps for the rest of the day, I'll aim to just get the house resembling something other than a poorly kept house of ill repute and won't beat myself about achieving nothing more. Frankly the Friday self-flaggelations are a bit tiring too.

Thank god there's a nice bottle of pinot grigio in the fridge and Ben & Jerry's in the freezer. When all else fails, ice-cream and booze will get us through.