Fill in the Blanks Meme

Christopher answers an interesting meme where you fill in the blanks. My basic answers are italicized and longer ones are below each statement.

1. Before I walk out the door, I always check to make sure I have my wallet.
I'm in sad shape without it. For one thing, I'd be driving illegally. Second, I'd be without money. Third, if I did have money and got away with driving illegally, and it was during the school semester, I'd have to pay $5.50 for lunch without my ID, which would really hurt given the quality of the food (but I don't have time to drive elsewhere for food on days I eat lunch there).

2. I can't seem to catch up on my reading list.
Right now, I'm prioritizing by putting books that were given to me ahead of those I bought, since I might get asked how I liked the books. I'm also sorting by the likelihood that the giver will ask me. Right now, that has me reading Letters to a Young Catholic by George Weigel. It's an interesting little book, although as a non-Catholic I'm clearly not the target audience; things that I'd like to hear more about (Catholic distinctive) are often passed over with the assumption the reader already is familiar and in agreement with them. I do like it, however, and will talk more on it another day.

3. The one surface in my house that always seems to get cluttered fast is any flat surface.
Ok, maybe that's an exaggeration, but not by much. I have a semi-permanent stack of papers on the space I cleared up on my desk when I ditched the 19” CRT for my Apple Cinema Display last January. My nice reading chair by my “current reading” bookshelf is always collecting stuff. My dresser collects stuff. Tables collect stuff. The floor collects stuff. I try to reign it in every-so-often, so usually things are more or less presentable, but it is a constant battle with the (cue the dramatic music) Stuff that Covers Things.

4. If I sleep past 11:00, I feel that I've slept in too late.
Most of the time, even if I'm off, I try to get up by 9:00 or 10:00, but I enjoy sleeping beyond 10:00 every-so-often. If it gets past eleven, though, I feel like I've missed too much of the day. Usually I try to schedule everything so I never have to get up before 7:00 (I'm still mumbling about the time I had to get up at before 4:00 so that I could be down at Newschannel 5's “Window on St. Louis” a few years back).

5. No matter how hard I try, I just can't seem to get my todo list done.
I have too many irons in the fire and so I end up being slow on everything. I get overwhelmed and then fail to get anything done. Some people seem to manage a bunch of different obligations much better than I do.

6. I hope to have my income taxes done by April 15.
I figure that's a good date to aim for. Seriously, I usually get them done a few weeks earlier than that.

7. This year I'd like to make more time for reading.
I spend a lot of time reading and writing, a lot of time reading stuff online too (news, technical information, etc.), but I'd like to spend more time reading things I'd like to read. I'd like to read Narnia and the Lord of the Rings. I'd like to finish the Divine Comedy. I'd like to finally catch up on the Left Behind series (even though its gone down hill, I'm hoping the prequels might prove worthwhile). I'd like to read some more of Karl Barth's works. I'd like to actually have every book on my bookshelves read (excluding reference works).