One Year Down Already?

Ah, finals, round two. It seems impossible that the semester is over, and that it's been an entire year since my acceptance letter arrived and I thought it was some kind of elaborate hoax. I'm one paper (Public Admin) and one written final (ConLaw) into finals, with just two more written finals (Bible, Italiano) and one paper (Ideology) to go, and summer is in sight. With that in mind, I'm thinking about what I would like to accomplish this summer, other than mope around and be sad that school is out until FREAKING SEPTEMBER.

Yes, I am very, very nerdy.

Obviously, this list will be scribbled out and corrected and done over eleven thousand times this summer, but here's the preliminary plan.

• Plants: conquer weeds in front garden, start back garden, buy machete to deal with brush in back yard, and do happy dance because the wisteria is planning to flower this year. If possible, burn backyard and begin growing actual grass. Transplant clematis to lightpost so it has something to throttle.
• Install outside outlet so I can plug in lights at Christmas.
• Go through every item I own and throw out or otherwise get rid of everything I don't need, use or want. Everything else gets organized.
• Get the eighteen tons of tailoring I've put in my tailoring pile tailored.
• Actually use Rosetta Stone and learn Italian so as to help GPA and graduate with honors.
• Finish Large Scale Top Secret Project in time for Christmas.
• Organize garage and basement.
• Go to Boston more. I used to head in there all the time and now never make it in.
• Go on more adventures.
• Learn how to actually use Bowflex machine instead of puttering around like a weirdo.
• Find rollerblades, clean bearings, put washer in gap from removing brake so jingling noise stops, replace wheels, and see if I can make it to school and back without being mowed down by elderly drivers. (Subgoal - regain fabulous legs of 1999-2003 era)

I have also developed a large and frightening reading list which is my own fault and will be awesome even if you think I'm a nutbar, to wit:

• The Third Reich, Michael Burleigh
• Julius Caesar, William Shakespeare (again)
• Richard III, William Shakespeare (again)
• Henry IV, William Shakespeare
• Henry V, William Shakespeare (aaaaaagain)
• The Case for Greatness: Honorable Ambition and Its Critics, Robert Faulkner
• Shakespeare as Political Thinker, John Alvis & Tom West
• Shakespeare's Politics, Allan Bloom (eeee!) & Harry Jaffa
• As much of Prof. LePain's EXCELLENT recommended reading on theology as I can get my mitts on
• The Adventures of Kavalier and Clay
• Bel Canto, Ann Patchett
• Against The Day, Thomas Pynchon
• The Road, Cormac McCarthy
• Theodore Rex, Edmund Morris
• As much of my Amazon list as I can obtain via BookMooch