On being my own worst enemy

I spent today in an all day meeting, or a "retreat", at a hotel function room just one Metro stop away from my place of work. Yes, this is just what someone like Thoreau had in mind when he spoke of "retreat". Fake leather executive chairs, laptops, LCD projectors and mini Diet Coke bottles. Walden, take me away!

I was doing just fine for the morning session, but found myself struggling in the afternoon. Too much lunch and discussion fatigue had my head bobbing and eyes shutting beyond my control. I do some fairly odd things to keep myself awake in these circumstances. It's hard when you have to be subtle. But I'll do things like pinch the area just under my eye (where my dark circles usually reside) or scratch my arm, the back of my neck, anything to keep myself awake.

Since I spent much of the morning biting my fingernails (what IS wrong with me), my arm scratching has resulted in serious injury. I have two rather large cuts on my forearm. They hurt. Like bad. It looks like I was attacked by a cat. But, no, I did it to myself.

Awesome.