TO DO LISTSSSS

Do you ever have a system that works well, and then ONE TIME you screw it up and everything falls apart? Yeah, well that was my weekend. For the past few months, I begin every single weekend with a to do list. I do this Saturday morning or Friday night if I'm good, and then I can get my entire weekend in perspective. I'm not the greatest when it comes to time management, so I still end up procrastinating somewhat, but I'm never working 12 hours in one day. Unfortunately, somewhere in the happy Thanksgiving mood of this weekend, my to do list slipped my mind. I wasn't planning on doing anything Thursday or Friday, and Saturday I sat down with my APUSH textbook and tried catching up, but most of the day was spent upgrading my laptop to Windows 7 (which took FOREVER, but I'm happy with it now). Either way, Saturday evening I was talking to Katie on gtalk and she randomly mentioned the RemoteEx we had for APUSH. I think RemoteEx is short for something, but I don't know what it is. Basically, they are tests we have to take online, and we often have a few tries to do them. The last one I had was on a more responsible weekend (Halloween, when I did college visits), when I sat down and made my to do list Saturday morning. By doing this, I realized I needed to take my test early on in order to have time to review it and take it again by Sunday night. Ergo, I took it early on, reviewed, and took the test confidently after having plenty of time to review. So when Katie reminded me of this, I was a bit worried, but then thought, 'Oh well, another typical busy Sunday.' Had I made my list early on, I would have noticed that the test was not 120ish questions in a little over an hour with two tries, like the first, but 160 questions in a little under two hours and three tries. So instead of the two hours I was thinking about, it became six (it wasn't really six, because each try takes less time, but it was still much longer than I originally anticipated). You can imagine how annoyed at myself I was when I discovered this morning at 9 AM. I had already compiled a packed list of things to do, and this did not fit well on my schedule. ERGO, from 9 AM - 10 PM I was in my room hunched over my laptop doing work, leaving only for short periods of time to eat dinner and to make a lunch, which I ended up eating while doing more work in my room. Seriously, my back hurts from sitting all day. It was not good. And the whole time I kept thinking how if only I had made my list Friday afternoon, when I was doing NOTHING, I would have anticipated the six hours I would need to put aside for this test, and then I could have taken it early on Saturday, and maybe have practiced the cello or something else I was planning on doing this weekend but forgot due to my LACK OF TO DO LIST.

Moving on.

My Thanksgiving was great, thanks for asking. I FINALLY read The Hunger Games. I really liked it, but I wasn't blown away like everyone said I would be. Possibly my expectations were too high, but I wasn't so sure what I thought of it. I'll keep this spoiler free because I know not everyone has read it yet, but it was a little too much plot plot plot and not enough development. I dunno, I still liked it a lot, and I have asked for it for Hanukkah, so I'll see how I like it after the reread. Plus, apparently Katie has Catching Fire for me, so I'll see how the sequel helps the first book.

So what was I doing this weekend when I wasn't making to do lists or doing homework? Well, Thursday was pretty typical- I woke up, watched the parade, ate dinner at 1:30 (which I found obnoxiously early, so when my parents called me down at 1 to eat and I was still in my pajamas, I was not happy), cleaned up, walked my dog, ate dessert, and then we watched Numb3rs for the rest of the evening. Good stuff. Friday morning, the mother and myself woke up early, did some SHOPPING, and came home. I bought three pairs of jeans, which was pretty incredible considering I never seem to own more than two at a time, and now I have FOUR wearable pairs. *Excitement!* I read The Hunger Games. I finished The Hunger Games. I went through over 20 video tapes and re-labeled them. Then, my mother decided we needed more culture in our lives and took us to some student production of Fame. It was okay. I came home. I slept.
Satuuuuurrrdayyyyyy. Honestly, I tried. I was going to read that textbook and get back on track (because I'm insanely behind in my reading), and it would all be good. But I failed. Epically. I updated my laptop to Windows 7. I went through some more tapes. I went for a walk. Saturday evening I had a soccer game. We failed. Epically. It was really terrible. We lost 7-0.

I have lost it with this blog. I am tired. Nighty night!