So I noted I was emailing someone today with the statement, “Yeah, sorry I didn’t get back to you right away.  It’s been crazy.”

And I suddenly realized that I write that statement ALL THE TIME.  As in, at least once a week do I tell someone that my week has been crazy, or crazy-busy.  

It’s true - I have something planned for every night this week, I work full 8 hour days, and during those 8 hour days I have to often contemplate things that I must deal with in those off hours.  And something rather crazy DID happen this week in addition to the regular busy-ness. 

And it is true that I tend to have things like this happening all the time - my weeks fill up pretty quickly with busy-ness, and it feels sort of crazy to get to the various things that I’ve put together.  And it feels like I always have a busy week to point to when I didn’t manage to get to the gym AGAIN.  Yeah. We won’t get into priorities here.

So, if you are crazy all the time, is that normal?  And what qualifies as relaxing? 

What qualifies in reality as crazy?  I mean, do I have to have a shower of pink frogs raining on my city to qualify as crazy?  Or can I just feel like I’ve got that wide-eyed crazed look like Howard Beale during his “mad as hell” speech? 

I don’t suppose that having too many outings with friends for drinks counts as “crazy” does it?

Can having a crazy situation occur in the midst of being busy count as a whole week of craziness?

Is the term relative to my experience?  If I feel like it is crazy, is it so?  Does one crazy event in a week make a whole week crazy from dealing with the reverb from that one event? Or do I have to have a packed schedule? 

For that matter, if I feel like work has been “crazy”, can I really carry that crazy-ness label over into my afterhours life?

Or does the craziness of my week depend on comparison to other people’s weeks for a crazy-meter rating of some sort?  Am I just purporting a crazy week when in reality my week is moderately busy compared to others?

Should I just say “Oh, I had a normal busy week,” with the knowledge that people knowing me will know that equals pretty darn busy?  Or am I trying to get drama points?  I note that I do not call a week insane unless something extremely wild or odd has occurred…like the random discovery of lypossage.

Have we, as Americans, grown too used to running around with a jam-packed day as our normal existence that it really IS “crazy” or “insane”?  Has our habit of long-hours, back-to-back meetings, fast-food nation style made us a burgeoning mad house of a country?  (I’m pretty sure Europe would give us a YES on that one.)

And does any of this give me the right to forget to call/email someone back?

What is “crazy” for you?  At what point do you start to describe your week as crazy? 

Two Crazy Quotes for you - one fitting this discussion, and one just funny as heck.

There is no salvation in becoming adapted to a world which is crazy.
–Henry Miller

You know the world is going crazy when the best rapper is a white guy, the best golfer is a black guy, the tallest guy in the NBA is Chinese, the Swiss hold the America’s Cup, France is accusing the U.S. of arrogance, Germany doesn’t want to go to war, and the three most powerful men in America are named ‘Bush’, ‘Dick’, and ‘Colon.’ Need I say more?

–Chris Rock