Even before my feet are on the floor I feel like the day has already won. I wake up already defeated. I can’t bunch a fist to punch the day in the gut- which is where one should always punch the day. I linger in bed for too long. I feel like I’m in my final trimester. When I shuffle to the bathroom for my obligatory morning leak I do it seated. Seated! I often sigh. My reaction is slower. I can’t slap a dead mosquito. I get distracted more easily by things. I have no taste for exercise. When I sit at the kitchen table, sipping my tea, I place my head in my hand, mournfully. When I sit at my desk to write I just stare at the screen with deadeyes, my mind scumbling from my body. Never mind that I had a ton of deadlines. When I finally muster some courage, I write sentences with weak cores so they double over like dying plants. I stare out the window for long stretches. My doctor friend – Dr Nyokabi – said, ‘Get this herbal supplement called Ashwagandha it will boost you.’ I bought it yesterday. Apparently, it increases metabolism, reduces cholesterol, improves blood sugar and vitality. The capsule is the size of a bullet. You could say I bit the bullet.
I’ve had a hectic November full of travels and it has sapped everything in my bones. My fuel gauge has turned yellow and I’m just limbering along like a marathoner on a homestretch. I had the last story to run today but I couldn’t write it without doing it great disservice. So I didn’t.
Next Tuesday will be closing day here, so you can come in your home clothes. There will be an assembly at 10:15 sharp. I will open the comments to your questions about whatever you have wanted me to respond to the whole year. And I will respond to each one of them. Then we will sing the national anthem. Then we shall go home until next year.
For now, allow me to slither off and go bask in the weak sunlight outside.
And – unrelated to this – you will be happy to learn that even though my bones are weary, my potted plant thrives. It helps that it’s a cactus.
Stay hydrated, Gang. And take care of those knees.
See you on closing day.