Making a List

The term has been over for almost four weeks now, and I'm wondering where all my time has gone. So...

What I've Done So Far

--Graded fiction portfolios, turned in grades. It's always a pleasure to see what my students do with their revisions, and what they have to say in their critical introductions. And speaking of my students' critical introductions to their portfolios, which often address what they thought of the class, and what we read, etc., you can check out what one student had to say about me here. It's pretty funny.

--Revised some stories and sent them out to magazines. Also, I gave the chapbook one more round of revisions and sent it out to three contests. On a submissions-related side-note: I received an acceptance for a story this week. The problem: The story's already been accepted by another magazine. So, I had to send the editors notification, which pretty much sucked. It's so rare that a magazine is enthusiastic about a story...and I hate the fact that I somewhat wasted the editors' time. It's not like they're working for a lot of dough.

--Attended a few sessions on "Art & Wisdom" at this place in Princeville, Illinois. I enjoyed the classes immensely. It was nice sitting at a table, taking notes, instead of being the one doing most of the talking.

--Shopped for Christmas presents. I've ordered online what I need to order, and I even ventured out to Target and to the mall on Friday. Thanks to the fact that I was listening to Sufjan's album, I actually enjoyed the shopping experience this year.

--Read. In addition to The Road, I've recently read Ryan Boudinot's The Littlest Hitler and Stephen Elliott's My Girlfriend Comes to the City and Beats Me Up. I'll probably blog about each of those later, but I want to say now: I love Stephen Elliott's writing a ton. If you haven't read Happy Baby, pick that up first, and then move on to MGCTTCABMU. When I was shopping for gifts for people I wouldn't normally buy presents for recently on Amazon, I found his wish list and almost sent him a present. I put it in my shopping cart but eventually didn't send it because I didn't want him to think I was some kind of stalker.

--Played some video games, watched some movies, generally killed time on the Internet. I don't think these things need much further explanation.

What I Still Need To Do

--Write letters of recommendation for a few students.

--Update my C.V. and get a copy to the Dean, along with copies of all the whatnot I've published this year.

--Finish shopping for my dad and grandma.

--Prep for the Intro to Lit. class I'm teaching Winter Term.

--Start writing a new story or two.

Well, that's a start anyway. I've got three weeks until class starts.