It's Friday! I'm very excited about this, in spite of having 'worked' only three days this week.

Partly because there are a lot of "chores" I wanted to get done this week that I haven't touched. If I just buckle down and work on them, I'll have most of them done in two hours. That's the plan for tonight, anyhow.

Of course, I was going to do other things this week, besides chores.

I was going to re-examine the MYSA-AS books I've bought so far.

I was going to write, not just think about writing. Watch a couple of DS eps and then get back to getting the story on the page.

I was going to sign up for a class. I've been considering doing that for three years, but I never seem to get around to it. Not, you know, serious classes, not college stuff. Just fun stuff.

There's a class on making your own greeting cards that looked interesting. I used to make my own holiday cards. It's an expensive amusement but I tell myself the hours I spent covered in glue and bits of paper were hours I was not stuffing thousands of calories of junk food in my mouth. I don't know if I'm going to do that any more, though. On the one hand, I have two cartons full of "supplies" for making cards, so I've made the initial investment. I may yet get the urge again this fall, who knows? If I do, having taken a class might provide me with some more creative ideas than the ones I come up with on my own.

There are two drawing classes being offered. I think I mentioned in an earlier post that I suspect that my temporary fascination with MYSA-AS is really about the drawing. I've been thinking for a couple of months that I might like to take up sketching again. I used to have a lot of fun with it twenty years ago.

As we all know, I'm desperately in need of a new hobby at the moment. I own paper, pencils, and erasers, so it would be acceptable under the Fiscal Austerity program.

I've also thought about taking one of those "conversational French" or "conversational Spanish" classes. I had fifteen hours (twenty?) of French in college. Might be fun to see how much I've retained, and to see if I can actually become even minimally "conversational."

And Spanish is useful. I had one 'semester' of Spanish when I was in...I think, the 7th grade? I can count to ten and say "hot water" but I don't remember much else. Again, a second language, even just a bit of one, can be valuable.

I found a list of potentially cool new restaurants. I was going to mapquest the locations so I'd be ready when the R.C. gets back to town and is hopefully in the mood for Food Adventures.

My problem, of course, is that while I want to be paid for full-time work, I'd rather be home than in the office. I have many interesting projects and hobbies I'd like to be messing with.

At least, when I'm in the office, I play with the idea that if I were at home, I'd be accomplishing great things. As I think my failure to make the most of Monday and Tuesday this week illustrates, I probably wouldn't be doing much. I need to make better use of the time I have. Not, you know, spend all evening, every evening reading and then complain that I didn't get anything done.

Also, I need to keep a grip on my work ethic, even if I don't have any work to do.

For instance, if my boss left for the day at 12:15 on Friday, that doesn't mean it's okay for me to skulk out of here at 3:00. I have to stay at my post until I'm 'officially' allowed to leave at 5:00.

I know...I'll kill an hour eating lunch!

(The good news is that the more often I write, the shorter the entries are getting.)