Friday notes & 9 in 9 projects

Yesterday's "No Spend Thursday" was a success, mostly because I was home all day. That doesn't guarantee no spending, of course, thanks to the 'net. I avoided temptation by doing my email and blogging early, then keeping busy with other tasks all day:

• laundry: washing all small rugs
• sweeping and washing the kitchen floor
• shredding and taking out all trash, including recyclables
• cooking a meal completely from my pantry: Sausage and Garbanzo Stew
• going thru my closet for clothes that need maintenance or dry cleaning (at the end of the season)
• planning my next three cooking menus from the pantry and grocery store
• cleaning and fixing the bird feeder
• napping (yes, it was necessary!)

Our Spring Break begins today, so in honor of 10 days of no classes, I am addressing two lists of "to do" tasks I've been putting off for this very occasion.

Instead of a "7 in 7" I'm instituting a "9 in 9" list, meaning 1 task per day for the next 9 days, until classes resume.

1. Get car's bumper repaired
2. Sell books, etc. to local shop
3. Deliver printers to Salvation Army (no, I never...)
4. Visit Tax Man and get 2011 taxes in (early?)
5. Put dress on eBay
6. Sign up with Habitat for Humanity
7. Contact new retirement fund for re-diversification of funds
8. Contact old retirement fund for information
9. Clean apartment top to bottom in one day

Some of these tasks will take an hour, some a whole day. No matter. Several of them center on financial resources because by the end of March I want to be done thinking about monetary tasks on a large scale.

Because I have recently re-discovered that not including creative projects is, for me, the equivalent of going without meals, here are 9 creative tasks I hope to work toward, if not accomplish:

1. finish 2nd manuscript and edit; submit to editor
2. catch up with playwriting binge, for a total of 18 submissions
3. write 5 pages/day on current play
4. read 5 new books
5. blog every day
6. exercise 20 minutes daily
7. edit 20 pages of 1st ms. for editor
8. create two creative assignments for students
9. create/design syllabus for new fall course

Again, some of these will take only a couple of hours over one day, but some will require time everyday.

The goal is to return to classes and the last 7 weeks of the semester with these things behind me, my batteries recharged, and my attitude adjusted for the long haul of the final push.