The Fabulous Week of Fun Starting NOW

I was inspired by Jonah's summer to-do-list of 1998, and decided to spend my week off of school doing all the glorious wonderful things that I've always wanted to do, but never had the time for. There's no time like the present for fun, so that's the theme of the week. What would you do if you had an entire week off, and could do whatever you wanted with it? ("Whatever I want" being reigned in some what, as a grad student I don't have hardly any money, so no travel beyond an hour's radius of Portland and no shopping binges aside from the college bookstore and Goodwill). That being said, the rest is fair game.

Here's my itinerary for the week, which will be modified as needed. Weather will determine whether or not some of these activities will be pursued or abandoned:

1. Ride bike around waterfront on Westside, East Bank Esplanade to OMSI: (this was no big deal when I lived in NE, but now this is really far away and I kinda miss being able to do this loop).

2. Do the Sauvie Island Loop. (there's no way I could ever persuade Brian to do this, but there's nothing to stop me from trying it at least once)

3. Ride the Springwater trail. (it goes right by my house, this is an obvious choice).

4. Go berry picking. Strawberries are on. I will invite my classmates to come along and make it a party.

5. Write letters to as many of my neglected friends and family members as humanly possible.

6. Send some snail mail to some really deserving parties.

7. Go take photos at the trainyard.

8. Go to as many neighborhood parks as I can possibly manage even if just for 5 minutes.

9. Read lots of books (fiction ONLY)

10. Go to Washington park with bike.

11. Go to the Tualitin nature preserve. Now that I live over an hour away and am not subbing, I don't get out to Beaverton much. This is one place that's decidedly worth visiting.

12. Go to the rhododendron garden, even if it's all bloomed out by now. The lake is still attractive and there are other plants.

13. Write lots of poetry.

14. Make some zines.

15. Start a portfolio project.

16. Pick all my peas.

Those are the fun things on the list. There's also some "business" that needs to be taken care of before school falls down on top of me. I need to get my textbooks, pay the bursar bill, get all my papers organized, and new binders ready to go. Put away winter clothes, clean the house, write thank-you letters to people, clean out the freezer, and pick up mail from my old house.

Wish me luck, and more importantly, make your own list. What are you putting off in your own life? If you had a week free of work or school, how would you go about making every minute count? What things do you long to do?