Friday Five: Counting Down

I have five days left until I leave to visit family for Christmas. In the spirit of counting down, here's what I have to do in the next five days.

5. Grade 80 exams and finish grading about 50 research papers so I can turn in the final grades for the class for which I've TA'd this term.

4. Put together a partial syllabus on celebrity, humanitarianism, and the media. The syllabus is taking the place of a paper that I was supposed to complete for an independent study in the spring term and still haven't finished.

3. Decorate gingerbread men! I'm getting together with some friends on Sunday, and we're going to decorate our little cookie people and maybe break out the awesome early Christmas gift that K. got me and perhaps I'll attempt making some mulled wine.

I was going to take part in Do Nothing But Read Day on Sunday, but I think cookie decorating is a worthy substitute.

2. Finish knitting Christmas gifts!

1. Clean my home, wash laundry, take Rowen to the vet, and the thousand other little chores that have to get done before I can leave for a week. Strangely, I can live for weeks in total chaos, but I can't stand to leave a messy home when I go out of town. It's partly a paranoia of bugs; I'm always convinced that as soon as I leave, the bugs start moving in. It's also just knowing that I'll be coming back to a clean home and not walking back into a mess.

I'm sure there's probably more that needs to be done, but I'm trying to be realistic in what can be done and let the rest go until January.

One thing I did get done: I turned in my application for library school!