I'm doing 36 things
but it isn’t because I haven’t been working on it! I’ve been taking a beginner conversation class at CCSF. It’s pretty low-level, since I’ve had a lot of French before, but it is good for what I need, i.e. accent reduction and pronunciation. It’s also cheap. I don’t put enough time into it, because I am so swamped all the time, but it is more time than I was putting into it before. Also, I plan on continuing this in the spring and summer and in fact all the way through the fifth semester (conversation about culture and literature) which, unfortunately, is the end of the road at City College. I’ll have to do something else after that, but will worry about that later. I’ve been trying to supplement using podcasts, but I’ve only just started with that.
RP's Life List
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1. deposit my oral history tapes in the Southern Folklife Collection
10 entries . 30 cheers1 person -
2. clean out my email (all of it)!
13 entries . 37 cheers1 person -
3. document my trip
26 entries . 32 cheers1 person -
4. play again without pain
26 entries . 60 cheers1 person -
5. convert my dissertation to pdf
10 entries . 26 cheers1 person -
6. give a talk at Berkeley
2 entries . 32 cheers1 person -
7. become fluent in French
3 entries . 43 cheers1,350 people -
8. publish three articles
6 entries . 32 cheers1 person -
9. get out of debt
8 entries . 51 cheers11,040 people -
10. record the French album
2 entries . 14 cheers1 person -
11. record my own version of Junk Man
7 entries . 14 cheers1 person -
12. watch all of Eric Rohmer's feature-length, commercially-released movies (or is that films?)
6 entries . 11 cheers1 person -
13. convince a high quality women's chorus to perform Andre Caplet's "Le Miroir de Jesus" on their concert series and hire me to perform it too
2 entries . 13 cheers1 person -
14. get my ballet libretto choreographed and produced
1 entry . 28 cheers1 person -
15. take lessons in continuo realization
1 entry . 12 cheers1 person -
16. acquire a second single-action harp
4 entries . 17 cheers1 person -
17. buy MY old house
3 entries . 45 cheers1 person -
18. have tight abs
3 entries . 13 cheers10 people -
19. see the northern lights
26 cheers16,925 people -
20. Call Simon
15 cheers4 people -
21. own a dog in ten years (or less)
24 cheers1 person -
22. Get my teaching portfolio totally in order
2 entries . 15 cheers2 people -
23. clean my office
1 entry . 5 cheers143 people -
24. Develop a five year career plan
4 entries . 9 cheers1 person -
25. go walking three times a week
1 entry . 10 cheers2 people -
26. start a chamber music festival
3 cheers1 person -
27. "Clean sweep" my life up to 85%
2 entries . 1 cheer2 people -
28. do my physical therapy habitually for a year
3 entries . 3 cheers1 person -
29. l'enfant prodigue reunion tour
2 cheers1 person -
30. make new friends
2 entries . 6 cheers12,791 people -
31. lose 17 pounds
1 entry35 people -
32. create and follow an evening routine
3 entries . 2 cheers3 people -
33. Get through another semester
2 entries . 1 cheer1 person -
34. Make at least 10k freelancing in 2010
5 entries . 1 cheer1 person -
35. Practice 20 minutes every day
5 entries . 1 cheer1 person -
36. Don't be afraid of harpists
1 entry1 person
How I did it: I redefined my terms. I still have a large back yard that needs landscaping. But I rent and I work hard at my job so I am not motivated to do a major overhaul of the space. Instead I put my energies into my courtyard in the middle of the house. Right now I have many colors of tuberous begonias, a rose plant, various floral ground covers in hanging pots and some beautiful calla lilies. Soon I will get a bougan… Read how I did it…
How I did it: Two contradictory things helped: I moved a number of times, which forced me to get rid of things or to pack them up. Then I stopped moving around and moved into a large enough space that I could go through all of my boxes of random stuff. And get rid of a lot of it. I'm actually not entirely done (who is?) but I am well on my way to having an organized house with functioning systems, which I haven't had in quite a while. Read how I did it…
How I did it: I started lobbying to play the harp when I was about four. I started piano when I was seven, which gave me a very good foundation for a lot of things. My parents found me a harp teacher when I was eleven and a small used harp. After two years on that they rented a pedal harp for a year and then bought me my first pedal harp when I was fourteen, which I still use to this day. I got a bachelor's degree from a conserv… Read how I did it…
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Half an hour doesn’t seem to be too much, so I spent another half an hour today on the Bax Trio. I might try two 30 minute sessions, but trying to find two separate times during the day is difficult.
I took the timer downstairs with me tonight and got in a good productive 30 minutes on the Bax Trio. I wish that a) I were in better physical shape to practice longer and that b) I didn’t have so many other things to do. But I’m not and I do, so that is that and I won’t whine. I’ll just try to keep at it every day, even the most stressful days.
