How Do You Break Up With a Vampire?

I don't want to sound ungrateful, I really don't, but there is this thing that is sucking the life out of me. I try to resist it's charms, to just let it be a part of my life, but sometimes it consumes me to the point where I simply feel drained. On the worst days, I feel like I'm a shell of a person. Hollow on the inside - nothing left to give. This thing, this Vampire, is my job.

There are aspects of my job that I really love. The people I work with are tremendous, I wouldn't trade knowing them and spending time with them for anything. I love being able to utilize my brain, love helping out my customers when they feel like there's no way they can do it on their own, love conquering difficult problems. Fantastic. But all this love comes with a price tag: my energy. There's just not a lot left over after I'm done with my day. The charming Vampire has taken it to feed his own need.

So, what do I do? How do I keep my job but place enough boundaries on it so that I can function after I leave the office? I'm wading into a season of my work that is incredibly taxing (no, I'm not a CPA) - and well, wading is not really the word. I'm more "neck deep". This is the time where my greatest challenge is to keep my head above water, choke it out if I get pulled under, and move on. For months.

Is there a way to turn this Vampire into just a regular person in my life? Once turned to a blood sucking fiend, can it ever return? I'm not sure. Also not sure if I should break up and join the world of the living. This Vampire does provide me a lifeline. I wish I could figure out how to keep it at arms distance until I know I can sustain on my own. But, maybe that's not the way it happens. I have no clue.

Meanwhile, I want to work on that draft of my novel. I want to revise it, make it complete and get it out to readers. My goal is to do that before mid-July. The Pacific Northwest Writers Conference is coming then and it would be a fantastic thing to go and pitch to agents and editors, see what's out there, to learn some good lessons. Please, Mr. Vampire, leave a little blood in me so that I can do this? I'd appreciate it.