Plans and Day Planners

Create a definite plan for carrying out your desire and begin at once, whether you ready or not, to put this plan into action.

-- Napoleon Hill

I love lists.

I love seeing fairly simple tasks, bulleted down a sheet of paper.

There's nothing quite like the simple satisfaction of sitting down, lowering my eyes to my desk, picking up a pen, and scratching something off my to-do list.

I love notebooks.

I love the crisp feel of fresh paper, the smell of pages, the broad white possibility, just ready for whatever happens to come.

I love pens. I personally own more pens than I will ever use. In fact, I have a hard time restraining myself from buying pens.

Do not, if you love me, ever set me loose in an office supply store.

(Did I mention I love post-it notes, too?)

My current favorite pens were a gift from a friend. They're from post-it. Black-inked pens on one end, pink, yellow or blue highlighter on the other, and have a dainty little carriage holder in the cap for tape tags.

Oh, Johnny, I love tape tags!

Yesterday, I got a new day planner.

It's from At-A-Glance and it's quite hideously ugly.

It's orange.

I forsee the purchase of many, many stickers until I cover the entire front and back.

On the other hand, it seems to be perfect.

Perfect is such a terrible word, fraught with disappointment. And yet...


It is quite lovely.

Each day has a whole page set aside for it. I can write appointments on it and still have plenty of space left over for my daily to-do list.

I'm using the HOT section at the bottom to write down my plans for dinner menus and anything that desperately needs to be attended to.

I've divided the pages in half, making two columns. The right hand side is for special tasks for the day (for instance, this week - likely next week, and perhaps the week after THAT - I am reorganizing and cleaning the kitchen. A thorough cleaning!) and the left hand side is for those things that are regularly part of my chores list (make bed, do dishes, plan dinner, swish and swipe the bathroom).

So far, I've done everything on the left side of the page for today.

2010 (the year we made contact?)

Let me 'splain. [pause] No, there is too much. Let me sum up.
-- Inigo Montoya, Princess Bride

Sometimes there's just a bit overabundance of life. You'd like to spread it out, like peanut butter on a piece of bread, so that it's mostly smooth from one side to the other. You don't get a mouthful of plain bread here, and a wadded up bite of nothing but peanut butter there. For one thing, it makes for a lumpy sandwich, and for the second thing... ah, metaphors are over-rated.

My house is finally empty of guests. Thank you.

I got overwhelmed this year - and this year I was trying to "take it easy" for the holidays. Easy seemed to mean that I had four unexpected guests (who let me know on WEDNESDAY that they were joining us!) for Thanksgiving... three guests before Christmas and one after. I only didn't spend time with my dad this year because of a freak snowstorm that dumped more than our fair share of white shit all over everything.

Exciting things that happened this year:

I got a new (to me) car. My husband started riding his bike to work. This meant I could actually leave the house from time to time.

I joined a gym and I take yoga and spin classes semi-regularly.

I got a concussion, hitting my head on a coat-hook. In a bathroom. Seriously, how the hell does that happen?

I broke my toe. Resulting from walking oddly while my toe was broken - ingrown toenail on the other foot. That got infected.

Got bitten by a spider. This *also* got infected.

I had a blender-full of boiling soup explode on me. I got some severe burns, but thankfully my daughter wasn't in the room, so she wasn't hurt as well, and I managed not to burn my face. It cost me a great deal of pre-holiday planning time (I was still in bandages and on pain medication for Halloween and I didn't start really feeling like myself again until halfway through November. As a result of all these annoying injuries, I named November "No Injuries in November" and astonishingly enough managed it.)

I've gained about 15 pounds since the beginning of 2010. This 1) puts me firmly back in the overweight category and 2) has pissed me off so badly that I did the most stupid thing possible, which is to say, I said Fuck It, I'll worry about it later. Yes, it's later, now. That being said:

I've decided to do the 3-Day again this year. 2009 was a banner year for me, and the 3-Day was definitely part of it. Also, apparently if I don't have a crazy goal to work towards, my work-outs fall off alarmingly. So, if you want to donate, please do.

I can't really think of anything else at the moment. It's been a bland, slip-sliding sort of year, and I'm just as happy to have it behind me.

Hope it's a better year.