Bethanie's Brain

Well, I think I failed to complete even one of my 2008 goals, which is both depressing and surprising. I really thought they were good, achievable goals. Apparently not. And now that I look back at them, I get the sense that they aren't as concrete as I thought they were when I made them. I mean, I said things like "complete and submit one short story", which is good as far as it goes, but still vague. WHICH stort story? Submit WHERE? Another goal was to complete an edit of either NaNo 2005 or NaNo 2006 - WHICH ONE? I needed to be that specific. I also didn't set deadlines. I now see that as a real weakness in my plan. Deadlines get my ass in gear. Without them, I don't do much. That in mind, this year I have made an effort to be really, really, really freakin' specific. 1. Complete the kestlebird story. A kestlebird is a mythical creature in my fantasy universe and I have had a bunch of ideas kicking around and one story started. But not completed...

Ah, Project #1 .... More progress has been made on Step #1! I'm on a roll! ****************************** Get rid of uneeded baby changing table. Uncover baby changing table. See if LE will take changing table early. Move the sucker OUT OF MY HOUSE. ****************************** LE said, yes, absolutely, we sure will take the changing table as soon as we make space for it, 'cuz we're not moving after all and our original plan for a baby changing spot is kinda rickety... Now all I have to do is convince The Husband to help get it to LE's house... .

Wow! Can you believe it? Progress to report already! Either the 'post the projects' plan is working or Ms. Baby had started sleeping through the night (she hasn't). Progress has been made on Step #1! ****************************** Get rid of uneeded baby changing table. Uncover baby changing table. See if LE will take changing table early. Move the sucker OUT OF MY HOUSE. ****************************** Technically, I suppose I've also made progress on Step #2, because I put some of the junk that was on the baby changing table in my car to go to Goodwill. However, I will resist posting that as Progress until I actually GET it to Goodwill.

First, let me apologize for the title of this project. For some inexplicable reason, I despise the word 'nook' (it invariably makes me think of a really annoying real estate agent) and I would not use it to describe this project except that I cannot seem to think of anything better. Gah! Second, I've been thinking about doing this for a while now. I have my desk and 'my' chair in the living room, but as writing space neither of these really work. The desk usually has work stuff, bills or kid toys all over it. The chair is often buried in laundry, for one thing, and I can see the TV out of the corner of my eye when I sit in it, for another. Plus, I don't have any of my research notes or books within reach there. By far, the biggest problem, however, is that both the desk and the chair are right in the middle of Chaos Central (a.k.a., the living room), and nobody really buys the mommy-isn't-really-here-right-now thing. I need someplace (relatively) quiet...

New Post Category: I have decided to make myself accountable for the things I want to get done around the house by posting each project and its associated details here. Sort of an online To Do list. Boring for you, perhaps, but if my list of tasks is right there in front of me, I tend to get it done. It works for work-work: So I figured why not give it a try. I can add progress photos and strike off completed items. It'll be like motivation sorta. I'll post the first project later today.