For the first time in my (paid) working life, I'm involved in a project which requires a significant portion of my time. The sort of thing that takes up a rather large amount of overtime, working on weekends, etc.

My wife is a reporter, and she often gets called to do "extra" work. The week of Hurricane Floyd, she billed the newspaper for 80 hours of work (though the total was pretty much close to 168, or 24-7). The paper paid, which is quite sporting of it.

Me, I've often done these things for myself (when little or no money is involved), but that has always seemed like more of a personal issue. I did these things (say, organizing four years of printed reviews into a website archive) because I wanted to do them. It made me happy to do so. I didn't have a boss yelling at me to get this done, and stay late to do it.

To be fair, my boss only yells at me when I say things like "Anyone who listens to James Taylor must be a complete idiot." I think that's fair on his part (particularly since he likes J.T., despite being a couple years younger than me). But right now I'm involved with a project that is nearing completion, and as usual, there's a million things to do before it's done.

I've found this situation to be much like studying for finals or writing a big paper. To wit, here's my nutritional intake today: A Diet Coke and two Advil, a few handfuls of dried fruit, a Dr. Pepper, some nuts and more dried fruit, another Diet Coke and Advil (a quality cocktail that I simply must endorse wholeheartedly), some chicken, a couple bottles of water and a Fresca (ah, the healthy stuff!) and finally, to amp myself up for the drive home after 12 hours of work, a triple coffee with three creams and two packets of hot chocolate mix (mini-marshmallows, please). The combination caffeine and sugar rush lasts for about 45 minutes, or just enough time to get to my car and drive home.

I'm generally not an upper freak. In fact, my drug of choice (other than Actifed) is alcohol. Beer, mostly, though I'm also partial to wine (sake during the winter) and the occasional shot of gin. I generally run on a natural high (not to be too cheesy), and so I moderate it with downers. I've got this internal source of energy which can drive me to do silly things. While in college, I could usually subsist on this metabolic furnace for about two months. And then every November I would collapse (literally). I'd lose my voice and generally struggle through life for a couple weeks. Then, my resources replenished, I'd forge on until the next breakdown (usually January or February). In good years, I could then get to summer without collapsing again.

Since college, I have been smart enough to avoid these physical breakdowns. I've also begun exercising on a regular basis and eat reasonably healthy food. That's probably helped as well. But now, I can feel the pull of the work binge. It's not an entirely unpleasant feeling, because despite being a lazy bastard, I also like to have my mind occupied. This is why I like to have both the stereo and TV on when I'm reading. Multiple stimuli are great. And when I'm immersed in a project, I kind of hum along, oblivious to time or reality.

It's pretty cool, really.

I have found the same sort of binge and regenerative pattern in my creative affairs as well. Two and three-week cycles for reviewing records give me enough time to recover from the listening binges, and my two and three-year cycles for writing novels give me time to think of good ideas and new ways to present them. Indeed, by the time I'm done writing and editing and editing and editing a book, I don't even want to think about another long writing project for a while. Some folks would say that means I'm not a "real" writer. Whatever. I just think I've found the proper method and cycle of recovery. It works for me.

And so, even if I crash and burn physically after this paid endeavor, I know that both my body and my mind will return, sooner than later. I'll swear once again I'll never put myself through that, and then, someday, I'll forget my promise and once again plunge headfirst into the morass.

That's just who I am, I suppose.

Jon Worley's latest project will debut on Oct. 12. You might see mention of it on TV in the coming weeks. It's kind of a big deal.