Could'a, Would'a, SHOULD'A

What should I be doing now instead of writing this blog post at my computer, or checking out the scrapbook galleries on my computer, or reviewing my workout track record at my computer, or dreaming about my upcoming bike tour by looking at the website about it…on my computer?

Grading. That’s ALL I should be doing. It’s the hectic and challenging end of the semester here at UWF, and I’ve got stacks of final papers and bibliographies to grade. Actually, though I still have a whole class of upper division critical essays to grade, I’m almost done with the freshman work; but I’ve been relocating to the bottom of the stack those papers that I know are going to be terrible and hard to read and grade, so what’s left are the worst and most difficult ones. I know, I know, I should'a done those first and gotten them out of the way, and in some semesters, I actually would'a done that, and that way, I could'a probably been done with at least this stack by now. But this semester, I’m just not that virtuous.

Instead, I’m . . . dreamy. Daydreaming about riding my bike, about paddling my kayak, about hanging out with the Chief and Cocoa on our big summer road trip up the East Coast. But since I can’t actually DO any of those things now, am I DOING the things I should be doing so I can get out and play sooner? *John Belushi, Saturday Night Live voice here* Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo! I’m net-surfing for sites where I can read about the objects of my desire—bikes, kayaks, and road trips (oh my!) So at least for the nonce, "wanna" trumps "should'a," "would'a," and "could'a."