Friday, June 6, 2008

Things and things and things and things

It's time to start organizing my summer, since this one is gonna be a relatively short one, and I don't plan on wasting any of it. There's more to it, of course, than just getting a job; and I want to sort out the things that I'll be doing while I'm not sucking up to the man so that I don't go to school and go "ugh, I wasted my summer."

Summer is not a thing to waste, though of course a "wasted" summer is a matter of opinion. You might say I wasted my summer by not joining the Peace Corps or building a house somewhere. In that case, I'm a waster.

Anyway, I'm gonna break this down, and remember, I'm more or less making this up as I go along.

Things to Do
(This means all the activities that I could do without necessarily spending gobfuls of money.)
  • Write as much as I possibly can of Secret of the Clockwork Mouse, and possibly even find a better title somewhere in my brain.
  • Do more stamp-making, and make stationary for writing letters.
  • Actually write letters to people this summer.
  • Finish my oil pastel self-portrait and work more steadily with oil pastels in general.
  • Same goes for charcoals.
  • Practice guitar, saw, and (maybe) tin whistle.
  • Pro-actively learn magic tricks so that I can amaze my friends and annoy my enemies.
  • Experiment with that herbal tea set I got for Christmas.
  • Do more outlining for Archer stories, get a big-ass calender and fill it in with story ideas.
  • Repair my cowboy boots and my black flats
Things to Read
(Like, you know, books?)
  • Goethe's and Marlowe's Faust
  • Ulysses
  • Orlando
  • The Faerie Queene
  • Jung
  • The Hero with a Thousand Faces
  • That Hermann Hesse book that Peter gave me, like, three years ago

Things to Buy
(Okay, this list needs to be short)
  • Pants (3 pairs)
  • Shirts (2?)
  • Ballet Flats
  • Art shit
  • A watch (Fossil?!)
  • More RAM for the lappy, if I end up keeping the lappy
  • Elvis Costello, My Brightest Diamond CDs
That actually seems manageable, now that I look at it. I need to avoid overspending this summer, since that was the worst mistake of last summer. Of course I'm leaving an allowance in there for sale items (especially in the clothing department), and I'm sure that I'll buy a cheap Powell's copy of at least Ulysses, since I know that I'm more likely to read a book when I'm not thinking of returning it. And there's definitely a trip to the library to come in the next few days. I'm kicking myself for not bringing my Virginia Woolf book with me, since that had Orlando already in it; but oh well. I'm looking forward to Goethe.

And I guess I should think about getting that perfume from Anthropologie. Maybe.

Good news: the family is talking about maybe going to Disney this year! Bad news: they'll be going while I'm still 20. Laaaaaaaaaaaaaaame.

1 comment:

Andrew Clarke said...

Bringing things back to life is a fascinating concept. If it means actually doing so by cloning or something, I'd love to see animals like the Australian thylacine or marsupial wolf restored. Recreating them on film is something, at least. But I wanted to say: if you feel like reading this summer, may I suggest one to try? If you like "His Dark Materials" or any fantasy, you might enjoy "Outcasts Of Skagaray". For a free preview, go to www.threeswans.com.au and read the sample chapters. I'd be rapt if you did read and enjoy it, but whatever happens, best wishes. You write an interesting blog. Go well.