Santa’s not the only one making a list this December. I’m the sort of person who likes planning things, even if I don’t actually end up doing them. I make New Year’s resolutions every January, even though some of them are invariably discarded within a few weeks. I write out schedules under the assumption that it’s better to have a plan and then deviate from it when necessary than to not have a plan at all. That said, here’s the scheme to get the most out of Winter Break:
8-8:30 Ease self out of warm bed with cozy slippers, hot tea, and the Variety section of the newspaper.
8:30-9:00 Force self to pedal vigorously on the exercise bike, despite the damp nastiness of its basement surroundings, for the purpose of preventing muscle atrophy and creating body heat to combat the inevitable chill of the frugally-heated parental dwelling.
9:00-10:00 Practice basic hygiene rituals, eat breakfast, etc.
10:00-11:00 Review Latin.
11:00-1:00 Research and read for honors project on 21st c. Jane Austen adaptations.
1:00-10:00 Eat lunch. Have social life. Help cook and eat dinner and spend time with family. Read for fun. Do whatever the heck sounds appealing.
10:00-Sleep Quiet time (a.k.a more reading time) so as not to incur the wrath of sleeping parents.
Now that it’s written down I actually have to follow it, right? (and if anyone’s thinking I’m a little compulsive in my desire to schedule my time…you aren’t wrong) And now, for the most exciting part of the Winter Break Plan: Books I Intend to Read for Fun!
1)Vanity Fair (Thackeray)
2) The Secret Life of Bees (Kidd)
3) A Tale of Two Cities (Dickens)
4) Mrs. Dalloway (Woolf)
5) The Bluest Eye (Morrison)
And if I finish all those in addition to the books I’m reading for my Jane Austen project, I’ll be a superhero. My copy of Vanity Fair, incidentally, is one of the loveliest soft-covers I own. It is off-white, simply designed, and filled with thin, smooth paper of incredible density. Holding it feels like holding a big, heavy chunk of knowledge in your hands.
PocketGarden 