AKIC Friday!!

TGIAKICF!

It is the weekend for me but not for most of you, unless your days off are the same as mine.  Plans? None. Vague Plans?  Read short stories and Dickens's Christmas Stories; and hang out with my son, maybe even taking him out.

 

Changes

I have been trying to religiously follow a "To Do" list I have on my desk at work.  What I do is if I have something to do or want to do I put the item on the list.  If thing gets done, I cross it off.  If this thing is to be a daily occurrence (like Chinese Study or a daily chapter from a book), I move the item forward to my to do list for the next day.  If the thing doesn't get done but it is crucial that it is done eventually, I cross it off and move it forward.  I find it keeps me busy and my mind is racing with ideas.  I also find that I have given myself lots of time to read, but not to write or blog.

 

I will write the imperative "Google time management!" on my "To Do" list.

 

A Christmas Carol

Lazy as my Christmas will be, I am doing things in the Christmas spirit.  On my to-do list, I have written "email Christmas wishes to old acquaintance".  I have been crossing out the entry and moving it forward since I am making it a daily occurrence.

 

Doing this, I have something to tell that maybe should be written under the Changes headline.  An old acquaintance of mine who was politically a conservative twenty years ago when I knew him in Winnipeg.  He isn't now, which surprised me.  Why he changed is something I will have to ask him about.  Politically, my views have changed too so that I occupy his old position -- though of course mine is more nuanced.  It looks like we traded sides.

 

Another thing I am doing that is in the Christmas spirit is try to read Christmas stories.  I should also listen to Christmas Music but I forgot to put it on my to-do list.  Anyway, last night I finished reading Dickens' A Christmas Carol.  A great bit of writing by Dickens, and it was nice for me to see the specific details of a story I had assumed I knew by heart.  The ghosts of my life past have been visiting me lately.  Things that I would have liked to have forgotten, or attributed to myself in a foolish phase have suddenly hit me with the force of a slap.  Oh, how I have withered away so much time!  Oh, how presumptuous I have been!

 

I have also been asking students how much they know about the real Christmas story -- the birth of Christ.  I had one student tell me Jesus was born in the Garden of Eden.

 

On my "To Do" list, I should write "invite the three ghosts to make a visit."