Time to Get Back to It

So I took the occasion of the snowstorm to totally blow off every single thing that I probably should have done. I could have worked on the article, I could have cleaned my house, I could have read a book I need to read, I could have graded.... Suffice it to say there were any number of things I might have done.

Instead, I talked on the phone (for a total of approximately 12 hours or so - and no, I'm not kidding), and screwed around with this game. Oh, and I'm rereading the Potter. It soothes me. One of my phone-talking pals (*cough* the Muse *cough*) asked when I was going to stop rereading the Potter. I explained that this would happen when something else came along to replace it. He wondered whether this would be possible. It strikes me now that I'm not worried about that because I've done this with books since I was about 7 years old. It all began with the Ramona books, and then I graduated to Little House on the Prairie, and then it was Anne of Green Gables (for like 10 years), and then there were the embarrassing Krantz years (hey, there's fashion, there's mindless intrigue, and really, judge not lest ye be judged), and then, now, The Potter. And sometimes I recycle old favorites, and there are a few books that I reread pretty regularly to mix it up a little, but yes. I'm a rereader. And I'm certain that a new series will come along. What I wish would happen is that Rowling would do a new series in which she talks either about the Hogwarts founders or in which she talks about the wizards of the Hallows. That would rule.

But I digress. And I procrastinate. And today I cannot continue on this path, as I really do need to complete a good many things in the next 7 days. So on the agenda for the afternoon is to dig my car out and go into the world for some supplies (and just to get out of my house and away from the computer and the phone) and then I *must* make my to-do list (which will be more detailed than anything I'd put here, for making a list is really a very intricate process for me) and begin to accomplish some things on it. This needs to be a big week, and I can't afford to piss it away.

Briefly, what is on the agenda?

• Gather all materials I need for my article (some stuff is "filed" away - i.e., thrown crazily into a bin that holds all of the crap for one of the authors on which I work).
• Finish reading materials and theory for article.
• Complete a draft of the article.
• Work on an abstract for conference that will be happening in the fall and that I'd like to attend.
  
• Grade midterms for one of my classes.
• Clean. (I plan to do this once the draft is done, as if I were to do it before that would be procrastinating and I suspect I'd ruin all of my handiwork during the writing anyway.)
• Laundry.
• Rescheduled dinner party.
• Gym. (The goal is to get there 3 days out of the 5 between M and F.)
• Some prep for the week after break.
• Work on materials for faculty award for which I've been nominated. (It's not impossible that this just won't get done. The problem is, if I don't start on it I'm going to be insane in a couple of weeks when they're due. That said, well, this is something I'm not going to beat myself up for letting slide should it be necessary to do so.)
  

Looking at the list, this looks like a great deal, but I think it's manageable. And since I'm not counting Monday of next week in my calculations, it wouldn't be a tragedy if I put off Laundry and all teaching-related stuff until then. The reason to make the big push and to get the article draft done is so that I've got two weeks to sit with it and to edit and revise as necessary before I send it off. This does mean, however, that I cannot continue to be an idiot and to talk on the phone and play computer games like a teenager. So, time to get dressed and to see if I can unearth my car from the pile of snow that encases it.

Happy Sunday, everyone!