A Hiatus for HP.

Currently my to-do list has about 651 or so tasks on it. As much as I love drawing a line through tasks on lists upon completion, day after day I stare at my current list [during commercial breaks], and I've yet to draw a line through a single one. Instead I keep filling my days with other things in an effort to delay the inevitable. Why do you people think I've been spending so much time on this little blog o' mine lately? Not that I don't love entertaining the masses [and by masses, I mean the 3 readers that come here] because I do, and I'm thankful that you stop in on occassion. It's much easier to type out a post about nothing of significance sans APA formatting than it is to discuss matters related to adult learning, program planning, research, and organizational change in a clear and concise manner. But it's crunch time now and I've got to get busy because flunking out of grad school during my last semester would be uber uncool. Especially since I'm in the business of promoting higher education and all. Even though the "do as I say, not as I do" tactic sure seemed to work well for my daddy whenever he threatened to tan my hide if he ever caught me smoking a cigarette...as he was smoking a cigarette, I plan on avoiding that tactic until I can use it on my own children.

If you are worried about how you're going to spend the extra 2 minutes you normally spend here each day, I'm one step ahead my friends. I've created lists with boundless opportunities. Let me know how successful you are at crossing things off of these lists. Hopefully one of us will succeed.

Read other blogs-

• Stuff Christians Like: Oh my goodness. I laugh. I nod my head up and down in agreement as I read. I wince and curl my toes because it hits a little too close to home. It's good stuff. #113, #269, #106, #357, and Remix - #34 are some of my favorites. Feeling overwhelmed? I recommend that you start at the archives and work your way through.
  
• Big Mama: I swear she and I would be friends if we lived in the same town, understood and appreciated the same high school fashion trends, or if she wasn't creeped out by the fact that there's some random girl proclaiming an assured friendship based solely on the fact that I read her blog daily. I can't say for certain that she's creeped out by this proclamation, but it's probably a safe assumption.


• People of Wal-Mart: It speaks for itself. I'm not really sure what it says but it definitely speaks.

Read real books - [Do you remember those things from days of yore?]

• The Ragamuffin Gospel by Brennan Manning. I'm currently in the middle of reading it for the third time, and it never gets old. Always relevant. Always good.


• Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen. After much coercion by co-worker Em, I finally read this book. I wasn't on board at first because I was all "a book about a circus? I was scared of the circus as a child so why would I want to bring those fears out of retirement?" However, I loved it much like I loved The Time Traveler's Wife. I fear it will be dulled when the movie comes out next year...much like the movie version of The Time Traveler's Wife did for it. Darn the cinema!


• The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver. Look, I understand that if you grew up in a really small Baptist church like I did then you might be inclined to bristle up at first. Just read through it. Seriously. Loved this book. Added bonus: the hometown of the family in the book is Bethlehem, GA which is a stones throw from me. That's not really a bonus at all, actually.


• What's So Amazing About Grace? by Philip Yancey. There are tons of books on the subject of grace. Personally I think experiencing it for oneself is the best teacher but this is a good read. So good I've read it twice now.

Watch TV -

Y'all, premiere week could NOT have come at a worse time. I imagine that I feel much like Laura Ingalls did when she had to miss premiere week to work the fields or whatever it was she had to do when she lived in that little house on the prairie with Ma and Pa and Mary and Carrie...and Albert. I'll forge through like her and just set the DVR and catch up when the chores are done. Who am I kidding? We all know the only reason why I'm going to have to play catch up is because I'll be at the beach next week. Graduation, schmaduation...there's nothing coming between me and my friends who live inside the TV.

• Old friends that I'm looking forward to catching up with: Modern Family, Glee, Parenthood, and How I Met Your Mother.


• New friends that I'm excited about meeting: Chase, Undercovers (don't disappoint me, JJ Abrams!), The Event, Outsourced, and Outlaw. [Nope, I'm not paid by NBC to promote essentially their entire fall line-up of new shows. I've fallen victim to their marketing strategy, apparently.]

Listen to some music - [This is where I include a watered-down version of my weekly soundtrack. No hyperlinks, no changing of the font color for the song titles, less commentary. Maybe.]

• Just a Dream by Nelly. It kind of reminds me of that time he sang a song with Tim McGraw. Wasn't that Nelly and Tim McGraw? Or was it 50 and George Strait? Oh that would be a funny Crossroads episode.
• Teenage Dream by Katy Perry. I blame the movie Inception for my mentioning two songs in the same week with the word "dream" in their titles. Let's not discuss my potential lameness for digging Katy Perry and Nelly, please.
• Cath... by Death Cab for Cutie. Who here has been to a wedding and the whole time it was happening, you knew it was never going to last? Sad isn't it? Unless the reception food is good which makes for a little less buyer's remorse when you think about how that place setting of China you sprung for is probably going to end up on the dining room floor one day shattered into a thousand pieces...Like the happy couple's lives. [Debbie Downer was just a guest blogger it seems]
• Delta Dawn by Tanya Tucker. She recorded this when she was 13 which means she was the Taylor Swift of the 1970s. Except Barry White probably didn't interrupt her acceptance speech at the VMAs.
• Dog Days are Over by Florence + the Machine. Speaking of VMAs, did anyone else see this group's performance of this song? I don't think I'm speaking out of turn when I say that Flo is a horse of a different color, but she can carry a tune much further than I'll ever be able to carry one.
• Young Americans by David Bowie. It was the last song I heard as I was getting back to work after my mid-morning coffee break to Jittery Joe's.
• Y'all Come Back Saloon by The Oak Ridge Boys. I know the words to at least a million tunes so maybe I should start playing the tambourine with a silver jingle too. No? Alright, that's probably best.
• Should I Stay or Should I Go by The Clash. This song often comes to mind when I'm making a left hand turn in a busy intersection.
• Shelter from the Storm by Bob Dylan. There's something about this song that makes me miss The Wonder Years. Speaking of The Wonder Years...
• I Get By With A Little Help From My Friends the Joe Cocker version. Boo-yah... 4 weeks in a row. It's the little things, people.

I don't know when I'll be back here in the blogosphere, but I do know that when I return, I've got some riveting topics to discuss. For example: Hair - Straight or Curly; Prayer; and well...I don't know. I usually just make this stuff up as I go.