Never too busy for this

We're coming to you live from Caffe Vita. We just had a great dinner at Pho Cyclo with Dingo, Johnbai, and O, and then Dingo took us on the Tour of Attractive Homes of Capitol Hill as we wended our way to a quick visit at the Value Village. We're going to hang out here for a bit and then make our way through the increasingly cold and windy June-uary evening back to Renty Red, parked back on t'other side of the hill.

Today was another last-week-on-campus day: grading until class and then student presentations. A nice way to slide into the summer vacation - and I am on track to be done with everything by the end of commencement (at noon on Saturday), so that's when it'll start.

I have mentioned, I think, that this is going to be The Summer of Walaka: it will be the first time since I became a part of the higher education establishment in 1997 that I will be taking a summer off.

Some folks (cough *jon* cough) think that I should embrace indolence; doing nothing should be my goal. But I have other plans.

Over the past four years of teaching, I have taught as much as a full-time instructor usually teaches in six years. In trying to balance all this overtime, what has fallen out of the equation has not been sleep (I can always fit that in) or socializing (my friends are too important to me) or even relaxing (that is almost hexis at this point), but rather self-improvement.

I almost never read for pleasure anymore.

I bought a ukulele two years ago and haven't learned a song yet.

My juggling balls are gathering dust.

My daily RCAF exercises have plateaued at the standard for my age.

Last year was a crappy biking season.

My skipping rope is still stiff.

I need to do some creative writing.

And so on.

So, this will be a Jay Gatsby summer of reinvention.* I plan to have full, full days that lead me to exhausted and satisfied nights sleeping the sleeping of the just.

Yeah, it's ambitious, and still a little amorphous at this point, but don't you worry, I'll have a spreadsheet by the end of the week and then we'll be on track, you betcha. I've got some tentative goals - 33 books read, 1000 miles biked, and so forth - and some major projects - an audit of Otis's business accounts, for example. Since I'll have forty suddenly-empty hours a week, I feel I can take on a big chunk of activities and still have as much playtime as I have now, except all my daily efforts will be on my own behalf, not my students'.

One of the things that I thought I would take out of the mix was this blog; I need to do some other kinds of writing, and I wondered if this blog might not be bleeding off some of that creative steam. After consideration, I decided that my Pepys Gene is way too dominant and that I must continue to feed the diarist in me, so I think this site will continue. It may, however, become a membership site (like Jon's), so be on the lookout for that, if you care.

In the meanwhile:

If you have a book suggestion, let me have it.
If you want to go on a bike ride, let me know.
And like that.

And wish me luck (and no broken toes!)


PS: I am going to see some movies for sure, too, if not on opening night. At least:

July 4: Hancock
July 11: Hellboy
July 18: Dark Night

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*He opened it at the back cover and turned it around for me to see. On the last fly-leaf was printed the word SCHEDULE, and the date September 12, 1906. and underneath:

Rise from bed . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6.00 A.M.
Dumbbell exercise and wall-scaling . . . . . . 6.15-6.30
Study electricity, etc . . . . . . . . . . . . 7.15-8.15
Work . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8.30-4.30 P.M.
Baseball and sports . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4.30-5.00
Practice elocution, poise and how to attain it 5.00-6.00
Study needed inventions . . . . . . . . . . . 7.00-9.00 ”

GENERAL RESOLVES
No wasting time at Shafters or [a name, indecipherable]
No more smokeing or chewing
Bath every other day
Read one improving book or magazine per week
Save $5.00 {crossed out} $3.00 per week
Be better to parents

“I come across this book by accident,” said the old man. “It just shows you, don’t it?”

“It just shows you.”

“Jimmy was bound to get ahead. He always had some resolves like this or something. Do you notice what he’s got about improving his mind? He was always great for that. He told me I et like a hog once, and I beat him for it.”

He was reluctant to close the book, reading each item aloud and then looking eagerly at me. I think he rather expected me to copy down the list for my own use.

From The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald