Monday morning with deadlines

I have a lot of stuff going on. I am not always the best manager of my own time. I have a number of deadlines barreling down on me and not enough time to get things done. Guess it's time to starting practicing better time management.

My deadlines in no particular order:
1) Finish reading Finch and write a review (Saturday)
2) Finish reading Black Blade Blues and write a review (Saturday)
3) Download pictures from yesterday's excursion to the butterfly room at Pacific Science Center (1 hour from now)
4) Finish up costing out proposed advertisement budget for Foolscap (Friday)
5) Write article for TEC News (February 15)
6) Create TEC Facebook page (Friday)

I'd better get a move on.

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It's time to clean up this list a bit, since I've skipped posting about some of this stuff the last couple of days. Subjects about which I want to write:

* Upcoming travel
* Missing the ghosts of early American history
* Demons, a new supernatural series on BBCA
* The new season of Big Love
* The new season of Project Runway

Yearning for history--and upcoming travel

A couple of days ago, I posted a sort of capsule review of Alexander Hamilton by Ron Chernow. I found myself, in the wake of reading that book, missing living somewhere as full of history as New York is. I mean, if I'd been living in NYC when I read that book, I'd have hopped the subway into Manhattan and gone to Trinity Church to see Hamilton's grave. After that, I would have maybe stopped at Fraunces Tavern for lunch and a little more history afterwards.

Now, I know, my fellow Seattlites: Seattle is full of history, yes, absolutely. You can't walk in Pioneer Square and miss it. You can see it at the Ballard Locks, at the waterfront, in the architecture around downtown. I know.

But I'm talking about early American history. I grew up around it. Kids who grow up on Long Island are taught about early American history right in the middle of where it happened. I remember one field trip to Philadelphia and two field trips to Washington D.C. by the time I got to 8th grade. We had trips to Old Bethpage Village Restoration and my parents took me to Mystic Seaport in Connecticut. I know people who live in Washington state who have never been to our nation's capital and it floors me. But this is what I grew up with. Occasionally, I miss being around buildings more than 150 years old. It's an atmosphere, a sense of place, that Seattle and many West Coast locations just don't have.

Now, the happy news, the news I've been kinda quiet about, is that jackwilliambell has never been to New York City, and he's decided to take me back east for a long weekend in March. He'll need to get back to work so he'll only be staying three days with me in town, during which time we'll be playing tourist. But I'll be staying another four nights to visit with my brother and with friends as I can fit it all in. I'm so excited. And as Jack has a strong interest in the Revolutionary War era and the founding fathers, I'm certain we're going to be doing a little history hunting while we're in town. I'm so grateful to him for making the trip possible, and I can't wait to get back, even if it's just for a few days.

Yay!

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Subjects about which I want to write:

* Upcoming travel
* Missing the ghosts of early American history
* Demons, a new supernatural series on BBCA
* The new season of Big Love
* The new season of Project Runway
* Conventions plans (or not) for 2010