A Morning Whine-Fest

I cannot make a to-do list. It would be too depressing because there are way too many things to actually put on that list, and way too many things that are not actually getting done.

But I can sit here and feel bad about it all. I can also complain.

• My pool is literally a swamp. I expect gators to arrive with suitcases any day now. I think I need to hire someone to come clean it up/out because it's so bad now it would take me literally days to fix it. And my son likes to chuck branches into it, hurling them over the pool fence with quite a good arm. And toys. And whatever else he can find.
• I have about twelve baskets of laundry that my hubby washed but has no idea how to fold or put away. They're in the hall. My underwear is all somewhere lost within the mix.
• I have the eternal papers to grade and that hopeful look from students that I'll have them graded today. Fat chance. Wait til a weekend that isn't totally fried to happen first.
• I have paint all over my hands. I don't really mind the beige stuff but the black flecks of spray paint make my hands look creepy dirty. Ick. The tenants want to move into the house very soon, and there are many things to do still.
• I haven't had five minutes to myself that isn't spent in my work office waiting to go teach for weeks & weeks. & weeks.
• Grocery shopping? Hah!
• I have a meeting on Monday to discuss Sean's speech delay & possibly putting him into all day therapy. Something I've been dreading, but seems to be needed.
• I'm not sure if I am missing the eviction of tenants meeting today because husband has the paperwork & I am in the dark. I'm sure I'll catch hell if anything goes wrong there.
• The internet is still down at my house. Which means I need to call Comcast and complain cause there's something wrong that is not fixing itself as I had hoped.
• My TV room is a wreck with toys scattered everywhere.
• I don't like the pantyhose I'm wearing today, but it's cold & I didn't want bare legs.
• Time for personal "things" for me? HAH HAH!!!

Anyway. I could go on. I said I wasn't going to make a list but then I did and it's kind of pathetic. I am going to go teach now and try, really hard, to get all the work I have done actually moving. It's to the point now where the avalanche is getting so big that I won't get ANY of it done because the mountain is too big to move. Sigh.

What I Got Done

Computer organizey things. We now have TWO desks downstairs with two setups, one for me, one for Andrew. And a laptop upstairs-- all new & shiny. We are a three computer family. :) I also got a wireless printer. I haven't gotten it all set up yet properly (the printer) for wireless printing but soon.

I'm pretty pleased with the day's work. BUt man oh man I HATE putting desks with awful instructions together. There was a moment of much very vulgar swearing...but it's together and things are good. Hooray! More work tomorrow; we'll see.

To Do List: Hollyday Day 1

The first day of my Hollyday is rainy and a little muggy. Blech. But, since nothing I truly need to do is outdoors, it'll be okay. I do have an absolute TON of things I need to get done. I do have several days for these chores but what I don't get done today is just going to pile up on me.

• write myself into a grant being written by this Librarian at work. If I piggyback on her grant, I may be able to get some money for new A/V equipment at work. I'm torn about this since I want a "real job" elsewhere and why do a bunch of work when I'm leaving, right? But it will look good to have done it. Getting grants makes one attractive on the academic market. So. Write myself in there. DONE (mostly)
• clean sort toss a bunch of old baby toys. They're a mess & Andrew hates it and we need the storage space for other things. My house is such a good candidate, in some ways, for one of those storage experts you see on TV. We have some real messes here and there, and lots of actual space, but much of it is poorly used. We need some organizational gadgets, but damned if I know how/what to do with it.
• Purchase gifts for kids' birthday party we're attending on Sat. There will be a pony. Cool, but a little freaky. I feel like a character in Steve Marn's Parenthood so many times. DONE
• work on applications for jobs. You already know way more about this than you want to, I'm sure.
• get van cleaned out. On our recent road trip, about a cup of Quick strawberry powder got spilled on the floor. It's not a pretty sight. Contrary to what one might think, it doesn't smell like strawberries either.
• Check on a new laptop. My old one, Pele, died over the trip to San Antonio. In a very dramatic and annoying manner, in fact. I'll have to tell you about it sometime. Maybe. DONE
• On a related note, I need to figure out a better organizational scheme for the computers I already have. Yes. ComputerS. Two of them. And printer and fax/scanner. They're set up in such a way that makes them somewhat unusable. What do I do about it? So far, procrastinate. La lalalallallalalala. DONE
• Grade papers. (A Perpetual issue).
• Finish lesson plan for next week on Billie Holliday's "Strange Fruit." So far it's a cool lesson; it just needs a bit more juice.
• Feel icky because Andrew made me drink too much wine last night. Seriously. He's such a wanker about it. Forced me and everything-- poured it right down my throat. :)
• Fix the upstairs toilet. A flapper broke-- it's a minor annoyance, but I have to get the right kind from the Hardware store and it's one of those weirdly shaped ones. Not the "standard" which Andrew bought already. Trip to hardware store. Blech.
• I'm sure there are more things that I'll think of later. But for now, I'm going to scan the news headlines, check my email, drink my coffee, and decide which thing gets to be done first.

Hanging Over One's Head...

Things. Stuff that needs done. When I was writing my dissertation it was always that-- research, writing, editing. Send it to the committee. Wait (forever) for their input. Repeat. Then I was done! Unaccountably. After the self-induced computer inspired Tourette's of editing the damned thing to turn in to the graduate school I was done.

I had heard about the "you feel like you still have something to do" syndrome of post-dissertation land, and I felt it for a little while. But mostly, I DO have things I want and need to do.

• write novels (I have three or four of them in my head. Just like with the dissertation, I tend to get bogged down in research).
• finish the proposals for the two scholarly books I'm trying to get together
• write myself into a huge grant to get stuff for the English department that I want to use.
• write up applications for jobs
• figure out if I want to try for HS jobs
• clean my house
• prep for Halloween-- buy some pumpkins, costumes, etc.
• garden (my poor garden is ridiculously choked with weeds and tall weedy grass)
• revise several things for my Women Writers site
• things I'm clearly forgetting

Of this nice long list, I'll probably accomplish one or two things this week.

But today, I'm mostly thinking about cleaning. And being annoyed by the way Shreveport + service industry jobs work (or don't) together. Last time the lady who had been cleaning my house every two weeks came over, I essentially fired her, in my head. I didn't really tell her but I feel like she got the hint when I was as pissed off as I was when she left. And today would be the day she would have come by. I really liked having someone come and mop and do my bathrooms every couple of weeks. For the most part, minus munchkin clutter that happens on a daily basis, we keep the house pretty clean. But with all the hardwood floors, we need mopping regularly. But I was just sick of the drama that came with this lady. So now, she's supposed to call me and come by early in the morning (one of the bits of drama was perpetual lateness.) So now I'm thinking what I really want to do is have a babysitter come by and watch/play with the monkeys while I clean the house. It will end up being cheaper, and I like the way I clean. I just don't usually have the time and/or energy to keep up with the kiddos while I also am elbow deep in Fabuloso cleanser. (My favorite-- smells like lavender Kool-aid. And while that probably would not taste good, it is wonderful in the house.)

Anyway. Right this second I am feeling a little icked out by the smuggy smell of the air in the swampland today (we have sulfur-y swamp-y today. Mildew + Wet, a bit muggy, rotten eggs. At least it's not hot, but it's still stinky.) And planning to get myself dressed and clean the house and go shopping with the kiddos. Husband is working today so I'm on my own. Bleeeh.

But I really tend to feel guilty for that long list of things I'm not going to get done today. Let me add another list here so that I can at least get something checked off:

• Spoil my children.
• Love them crazily.
• Smooch and play with them.
• be amazed as Sean says more words than he used to (he sang "My Country Tis of Thee" the other day).
• Repeat.

To-Do

1. Take babies to school. Wish them happy 3rd Birthday. Contemplate adopting (when we get back) the kitten that was born on daycare property a couple of weeks ago (it's fuzzy! and black!)
2. Pack for Florida trip by noon.
3. Remember: camera, sunscreen, aloe in case sunscreen fails us.
4. Bathing suits. Cute sundresses.
5. Pack tummy meds for babies with "the wobblies." (Fun for a road trip, though!)
6. Toys, including Maia's new "Princess Tea Party."
7. Road Snacks (PB&J, pretzels, bottles of water. Maybe brownies if I am in the mood to bake them later)
8. Finish work related crap here before leaving.
9. Wonder why my "v" key is sticking. (Babies....)
10. Get on road by noon. In Florida about 8 hours later.
11. Back home either next Thursday or Friday-ish.

I don't know what kind of internet access I will have-- very possibly NONE. So if I don't blog 'til I get back, that's it. It's not that I don't love you all. I do. But I have beaches to walk on and sunscreen to spread on babies salty little skin.

To-Do List

I normally don't do "to do" lists. But I admire them when other people do them and magically check items off. So here is my current list:

• Laundry (eternally in progress)
• Networking computer issues (call Nerdgirl Computers)
• Work on articles: Anne Sexton, Zora Neale Hurston, Tarot rewrite
• Work on novel in progress (5,350 words right now)
• Clean house
• Read a book for fun
• Womenwriters website-- fiction editor--review proposals --draft proposal for publication --figure out listserv problem
• get pool water checked
• work out/ go to gym
• grocery shop
• go to lunch with K next week
• find someone to put together the fort
• propose Continuing Ed class
• clean house (didn’t I say that already?)
• feel guilty for not getting most of above done
• obsess over what the hell I'm leaving out. I know there's SOMEthing.