Back in the saddle

Long weekend here--one of the perks of a Christian college, or at any rate this particular Christian college, is getting Good Friday and Easter Monday off. (Is Easter Monday a holiday? I doubt it. I think it's more like traveling-home-from-Easter-dinner Monday. Hey, it's a day off. I do not understand those people--faculty!--who kvetch about odd holidays, like Homecoming. People, I ask. Do you not want to sleep in??) I have a lot to do, and today, Friday, I feel up for it.

(This is my thing--I'm always at my most motivated on the first day or two of a break, because I can imagine how wonderful it will be to get a whole lot done early on and to spend the rest of the weekend reflecting comfortably on how productive I am. Last night I had a dream about going to Chicago with a high school friend and coming back really late on Saturday night; at one point I realized that we wouldn't get home until like 4 am on Sunday, and I have dinner plans for Sunday evening, and so I had lost nearly the whole long weekend! It was almost over! Only a day and a half left, and I hadn't done my grading! It was a dreadful dream.)

First off--well, not really first, but like third off--are the conference paper and upcoming presentation. These must be worked on this weekend,* although, knowing me, I must first do some other, miscellaneous things and thus get a good jump on the to-do list. Luckily, Sisyphus has come through with a helpful challenge. What she's calling The Magical Month of Academic Publishing Challenge 2009, I for my purposes will call The Magical Miscellaneous Writing Project Period of Time 2009, as what I need to write is a long way from publication efforts. Huzzah! Despite the name change, I'll follow Sis's rules: From April 10-May 10 (or actually May...7, because that's the day I leave for Kalamazoo, I think), I will write for 15+ minutes a day. And given that I've done approximately 2 hours of scholarly work this semester, that will be a big improvement.

Other items on the docket, because who doesn't love someone else's to-do list?:

• grade intros for comp
• finish seminar reading for the semester (two weeks' worth of stuff--but it's a totally enjoyable book, so this is no punishment)
• read brand new stuff I've never read before for survey
• read chapter on arguments of fact (??) for comp
• do some prep, blah blah blah
• evaluate recent seminar presentations and email evaluations to students
• make yogurt and granola, as usual
• grocery shop
• make a side dish for Sunday dinner at friends' house (obviously not today)
  
• buy socks and other oddments
• go to a yoga class--maybe even two!
• vacuum the damn house
• pull dead leaves off of plants
• don't I need to write a prompt, or something?
• catch up on email.
  

That's actually not too bad. Am I forgetting anything? Maybe I will have time to work on those papers....

*Note passive voice: Who will be doing the working? I just don't know!