Catching My Breath

Does anyone else have to declare a catch-up day? After yesterday's looooooong schedule, I collapsed. Today, I was just not ready for the many, many challenges.

So: time out.

I have so far spent today

• blogging at my other site
• correcting student assignments and posting their grades
• writing student rec letters for a specific project
• setting up and confirming my reservations this summer from Big D to Paris and back, as well as my Chunnel tickets and Jack's flight reservations
• answering/organizing all my emails about divisional productions
• plotting Friday, Saturday, and Sunday--many commitments there, too!
• and petted Jack, answering his demanding whininess
• Later: ordered postcards for student playwriting festival

Paperwork is a trial, yeah? Sometimes it all seems so huge: being a single woman means having to do the job; take care of the house, the car, the cat and me; paperwork past, present, and future. Some days, it just feels like too much, like a mountain of stuff that has to be climbed again and again.

Of course, one day isn't enough, but getting through 3 assignments/posting of grades is a triumph of sorts. As is making certain my bills for next month are completely posted, my travel reservations are complete, and my house is straightened up.

Oh, yes, and it's No Spend Thursday, too.

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.

No Spend Thursday, #3

Well, I am home all day working. Perhaps that will enable me not to spend nuthin'. Cross your fingers.

Skeptical Jack

No Spending Thursday: Accomplished!

Yesterday, I had a successful "no spend Thursday": carried my own water and coffee, brought snacks with me to my two lectures, resisted stopping anywhere on the way back home. Good start!