Weekly Update

The first month of 2011 is over, so this will be a special update (well, not that special. There will be 11 others like this).

For writing, I've done fairly well this month. I did all the research that I wanted to do, and have about 14 pages of notes (this is an incredibly depressing collection of facts about the oceans, and a bit about a famous old book.) I've also started writing and have 2,200 words. Not a lot, but I'm trying the "do something every day" goal, not the "write a lot" goal, so consistency is more valued than numbers. That being said, there were a couple days this month where I didn't do anything at all for writing, unless "thinking that I should probably do something" counts as doing something, which seems too low a bar even for me. Next month I'll try to write at a faster pace, and not spend time doing research, so I should have more than twice what I have now. We'll see.

For getting my house cleared out, I've made a bit of progress. My mom came and took things a few weeks ago, and this week I've gotten rid of quite a bit of unwanted things to the dump. On the other hand I got a new washer and dryer from freecycle, so now I have an extra washer and a broken dryer to get rid of. Hm. Mixed results.

For finishing my applications, I got work done on that this month as I finished applying to two schools. This week I nearly finished with one more school, leaving a final one I have to do before February 15th. That one school I did this week, UConn, was a horrible headache. For some reason they wanted me to put a package together and mail everything in one envelope from my house old-timey-style, meaning that I had to wait for everything to come to me, and wait, and wait. I finally got all my recommendations, transcripts, etc. literally four days before the deadline, and so had to assemble it all and mail it by Saturday so it would arrive Monday, or I'd be too late. This involved running around to two post offices (Me: "The sign there says you'll take express mail on Saturdays before 11." Mean Post Office Lady in Point Reyes: "But that sign over there says that we're closed on Saturdays. That means we can't take express orders." Me: "But if you're closed today, why are you here with the open window?" Her: "To be nice. I don't have to be." Me: "It would be nice to take the express mail from me." Her: "We're closed." etc. etc. By the way, I don't think this counts toward my resolution of "getting to know my neighbors".)

I did in the end get it sent, though I had to send one of my transcripts ripped open. Hopefully they'll accept that for now and wait for another. I also need to email a correction to Rochester. bleh. Still, progress! And I'll be done by the end of next month, even if "done" means no more progress than I've made so far.

As for hanging out with people I care about, I've been doing that a bit more as I go over to people's houses and make myself go to dinners and parties etc., but more could clearly be done in that direction. This week I went to a baby shower and to my brother's house to hang out, which is a bit better than always heading home.

Other than that I haven't done too much toward the other resolutions, but I have plans in the works which should move me forward toward all or most of them next month. How about you?