Erin Miller

1. Make to do list at home
2. Make to do list at work
3. Check to do list
4. Make a blog post about to do list
I like to do lists. Actually, I prefer not having them, but if I have stuff I need to do, I have come to really enjoy having it in list form. My biggest complaint about my igoogle to do list is that when I complete something on it, it immediately deletes. I like to keep my to do lists with the items crossed out on it, so I can see that I have actually accomplished something. Luckily enough, I have a large white board attached to my desk, and it works great for to do lists. While I was studying and taking finals in the weeks after Thanksgiving break last semester, I got a bit overwhelmed. I couldn’t deal with any “real-life tasks” I could only deal with school. So my to do list for “real-life tasks” grew pretty long, it stretched from the very top to the very bottom of the whiteboard.

Christmas break provided a wonderful three weeks of with very little to do. Sure, I still had a couple of to lists, but they were short, and kept in a small notebook, and even then, most of the items weren’t accomplished. But now I am back in the city, working and getting ready for school, and the to do lists are growing again. I have to do lists in 3 places, but I am holding off on putting one up on the white board for as long as possible. Maybe I am afraid of how long it will get.

While I was visiting Dan and his family is Springfield during the holidays, we went to the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Museum. Lincoln spent his productive years as a lawyer in Springfield prior to being elected president. At the museum, they had one of those penny crushing machines that could imprint Lincoln’s profile onto a penny for 51 cents. I would have made a penny with Lincoln on it for everyone I know, but alas, it was broken.

A few months ago I returned to New York after a short trip and one of my good friends asked me if I felt “validated as a person,” if the trip had left me feeling calmer, refreshed, and more comfortable with myself and what I was doing in life. I hadn’t ever thought about it that way, but in fact, the short weekend trip had accomplished that. I found the question striking because I think that people are generally afraid to admit that they crave validation, that they look not only internally but also externally for strength and approbation. I have been off of school and work for about two weeks, and I have just under a week of vacation left. So far I have spent some time visiting family in Oklahoma City, I spent Christmas with my family in Denver, and spent several days seeing my boyfriend’s hometown and listening to the tales of his youth. Now I am spending time enjoying the company of my family and boyfriend and preparing for re-entry to “real-life” next week. Two nights ago, though, my validation became official.

Validated
Dan and I met up with some of his friends at a concert at the botanical gardens, which beyond some great music by Ian Cooke, included the additional benefits of free beer, as long as you didn’t set your cup down, and a quick, cold, and breathtaking walk through the blooming Christmas lights of the gardens. It was an amazing evening and has led me to determine that not enough concerts include free beer and millions of glowing lights. Perhaps most importantly, however, when we gave the guy our tickets, he checked our ID’s and officially validated us, so I guess maybe it is getting about time to return to the City.

Ian Cooke in Concert — the picture are compliments of my impressive photographer-friend Nicole
Nicole’s blog and access to more photos

I am in the middle of finals during my first semester of graduate school. I am busy, tired, and just the slightest bit stressed. I would love to be able to take a half hour break and catch up on current events in a way that allows me to laugh at the world and at myself. However, you are not on. I am not taking a position against the writers strike. In fact, I understand the writers strike. I’ll I am saying is that I have not had time to buy groceries and have no food in the house, I have a pile of dirty laundry, Christmas gifts to buy, I have to be at work until midnight, and I have a thirteen page paper to write for my class (which is due Saturday. Saturday? Really? We have class on Saturday?) and I’ll I would like is a half hour comedic break. Instead I have been forced to eat my meals, such as they are (mainly fluffer nutters and asian delivery), while getting my news from more reputable sources such as the New York Times, the BBC, and The Week. I find my news much harder to digest in these more serious formats, and I would really appreciate it if you could come back and give me a few more episodes, just to get me through finals. Further, I had tickets to your show on NOVEMBER 5TH, the first day of the writers strike. I had been a wonderful enough and thoughtful enough girlfriend to arrange, a month ahead of time, for my boyfriend and I to attend your terrifically free show while he was in town visiting. I had built up the surprise plans for that evening for weeks. Instead, we were forced to walk to Rockefeller Center to decide that the ice skating was too expensive. The best news to come out of this is that my boyfriend has agreed to come back to the city so that we can attend the show as soon as it is back on and I can get tickets again. Therefore, I feel, that at the very least, I should get my choice of dates for free tickets as soon as you are back on. Really, they should be VIP tickets.

Dan and I deciding that ice skating is too expensive. Sure, its a cute picture, but how much more fun would it have been to be at the daily show?