It’s 8 a.m. on Thursday, and grades are due in by 5 p.m. I still have a few essays left to grade today, but only a few. Two-thirds of my students’ grades are tallied as well, so I’m actually, by my own standards, ahead of schedule. I should have grades in by noon. The too-bad thing is that I’ve had MORE than enough time to get it all done long before today. Things I’ve done instead:

- Law & Order daily TiVo marathons
- Trip to the GAP to buy not Christmas presents for others, but a sweatshirt for myself, because I was craving a light-blue clothing item
- I actually made myself lunch the past two days, and not out of the box in the freezer labeled “Trader Joe’s brand Cookie Dough”
- Went to Las Vegas for the weekend with Steve, where we mostly pigged out and watched the pilot of the 80′s TV show “The Greatest American Hero”
- Spent several days sorting out a last-minute credential issue related to the long-term sub high-school teaching assignment I’ll start in January
- Took Linus to the vet for an extensive check-up
- Cuddled and played with Linus in an extensive effort to make it up to him that he had to go to the vet
- Bought flowers to put the gifts “under” since we don’t have a tree (it’s shorts weather here; flowers seemed appropriate)
- Went to the Container Store
- Spent an hour making an extensive list of additional items I want to get at the Container Store WHEN my grades are in
- Planned my closet reorganization, which will follow aforementioned trip to the Container Store
- Made signs about Christmas tree recycling to put up by the trash cans in the alley (this was pure procrastination; no one asked me to do this)
- Went to Kinko’s to laminate aforementioned signs (hey, this is a nice place; signs should be laminated)
- Shopped online for a Christmas gift for myself: an automatic, self-scooping cat box (in case you haven’t noticed, I really don’t have time to scoop)
- Blogged